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Azure Administrator (AZ-104)

A route to the Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate: the official study guide, a capped sandbox subscription, labs for identity, storage, compute, networking and monitoring, timed practice exams, booking and the yearly renewal.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for Azure Administrator (AZ-104), and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

What it installs.

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50

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198

Starter tasks

🏅 Tech & Engineering Certifications

Azure Administrator (AZ-104)

Studying for Azure Administrator: identity, storage, compute, virtual networking and monitoring, with hands-on labs and practice exams before booking.

  1. AZ-104 study guide and skills outline folder
  2. Readiness check of your Azure admin background
  3. Azure sandbox subscription with budget alerts
  4. Microsoft Learn and certification profile set-up
  5. Baseline score on the free Microsoft practice assessment
  6. Choosing the main AZ-104 study resources
  7. AZ-104 study calendar to a target exam week
  8. Azure CLI, PowerShell and Cloud Shell set-up
  9. Lab naming, tagging and teardown conventions
  10. Four study sessions a week routine
  11. One lab per learning module rule
  12. Wrong answer log and weekly review
  13. Monthly timed practice exam
  14. Lab spend review and resource clean-up
  15. Skills outline coverage tracker and monthly reset
  16. Microsoft Learn documentation lookup drill
  17. CLI command and portal path flashcards
  18. Microsoft Entra users, groups and licences
  19. Azure RBAC role assignments and scope
  20. Azure Policy, resource locks and tags
  21. Management groups, subscriptions and cost controls
  22. Storage accounts, redundancy and access tiers
  23. Securing storage with SAS, keys and network rules
  24. Azure Files, Blob lifecycle and AzCopy lab
  25. ARM templates and Bicep for administrators
  26. Virtual machine availability, disks and scale sets
  27. App Service plans and container hosting basics
  28. Virtual network, subnet and peering lab
  29. NSG, ASG and effective route troubleshooting lab
  30. Load Balancer or Application Gateway decisions
  31. Azure DNS, service endpoints and private endpoints lab
  32. Same-day VPN gateway lab on a tight budget
  33. Azure Monitor, Log Analytics and alert rules lab
  34. Azure Backup and Site Recovery restore drills
  35. Closing the weakest domain after the first full practice exam
  36. Asking your employer to fund the exam
  37. Online proctored or test centre decision
  38. Exam readiness go or postpone decision
  39. Booking the AZ-104 exam slot
  40. Final two weeks before the AZ-104 exam
  41. Exam day plan for case studies and timing
  42. Score report, certificate and Credly badge
  43. Retake plan after a below-pass score
  44. AZ-104 for an on-premises Windows Server administrator
  45. AZ-104 for an AWS engineer adding Azure
  46. Studying for AZ-104 around on-call and family time
  47. Running an AZ-104 study group at work
  48. Admin runbook library from your AZ-104 labs
  49. Choosing the next Microsoft certification after AZ-104
  50. Yearly AZ-104 renewal assessment

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

AZ-104 study guide and skills outline folder

Microsoft writes AZ-104 from its published study guide on Microsoft Learn, which lists the skills measured and keeps a change log when the outline is revised. Saving that guide, the exam page and the current policies in one dated folder means every later choice about what to study is checked against the source, not a two-year-old video course.

First tasks

  • Open the AZ-104 exam page on Microsoft Learn and download the study guide
  • Copy the five skill areas and their sub-skills onto one summary page
  • Note the exam price, retake policy and rescheduling rules with today's date
  • Check the AZ-104 study guide change log for revised skills @recurring(quarterly)

Readiness check of your Azure admin background

AZ-104 assumes months of hands-on administration, not just reading, and Microsoft recommends comfort with the portal, PowerShell, the Azure CLI and ARM templates. Rating yourself against each sub-skill before you start tells you whether to aim for an exam in two months or six, and whether a refresher on cloud concepts would save time first.

First tasks

  • Rate each study guide sub-skill as work, lab, read or new
  • Count how many sub-skills sit in each rating
  • Estimate study weeks from the count of lab and new items
  • Write down whether you will revise cloud fundamentals first

Azure sandbox subscription with budget alerts

Every AZ-104 skill is easier to remember once you have broken it yourself, but a forgotten VPN gateway or premium disk can run up a bill in days. A dedicated practice subscription, with a budget, alerts to your phone and owner rights only for you, keeps labs separate from work and keeps the cost predictable.

First tasks

  • Decide which subscription offer you will use for practice labs
  • Create a monthly budget in Cost Management for the subscription
  • Add alerts at 50, 80 and 100 percent of the budget
  • Confirm an alert email reaches the phone you check every day

Make it yours.

Install Azure Administrator (AZ-104), then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.