AZ-104 Refresher
A 10-hour refresher of the Azure Administrator exam, written as a stepping stone to AZ-305. Each chapter starts with theory and ends with a hands-on lab in your own subscription.
0 of 11 chapters completed
How this guide works
You build one lab environment in one resource group, and every chapter adds something to it. The VNet from chapter 3 hosts the VMs of chapter 5, which sit behind the load balancer of chapter 6, which reach the storage account of chapter 7 over a private endpoint, and so on. In chapter 10 you back up and replicate what you built, then delete everything.
- Do the chapters in order. Later labs assume earlier resources exist.
- Theory times assume calm reading, including time to look at the diagrams and answer the self-check questions.
- Labs are assignments. Each step tells you what to build and how to know you're done, not how. Try it yourself first; the portal solution and the Azure CLI solution are folded away underneath if you get stuck.
- Orange boxes are exam traps, purple boxes link the topic to AZ-305 design thinking.
- Your progress (completed chapters and lab steps) is stored in this browser only.
rg-az104-lab so cleanup is one delete.Chapters
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What changed since you took the exam, Linux VM tools, lab setup, naming, costs
📖 5m · 🛠 20m
1Microsoft Entra ID
Users, groups, licenses, external users, SSPR
📖 30m · 🛠 20m
2Governance & access
Management groups, RBAC, Azure Policy, locks, tags, cost
📖 45m · 🛠 25m
3Virtual networks
VNets, subnets, peering, public IPs, routing, Azure DNS
📖 35m · 🛠 25m
4ARM templates & Bicep
Read, modify, deploy, export and decompile
📖 25m · 🛠 20m
5Virtual machines
Sizes, disks, zones & sets, scale sets, encryption, moving
📖 30m · 🛠 25m
6Secure access & load balancing
NSGs, ASGs, Bastion, public & internal load balancers
📖 35m · 🛠 25m
7Storage
Redundancy, SAS, firewalls, endpoints, Files, Blob features
📖 55m · 🛠 30m
8Containers & App Service
ACR, ACI, Container Apps, App Service plans, slots, networking
📖 35m · 🛠 25m
9Monitoring
Metrics, logs & KQL, alerts, Insights, Network Watcher
📖 35m · 🛠 20m
10Backup & disaster recovery
Recovery Services & Backup vaults, restore, Site Recovery, cleanup
📖 30m · 🛠 20m
Exam weights
| Skill area | Weight | Chapters |
|---|---|---|
| Manage Azure identities and governance | 20–25% | 1, 2 |
| Implement and manage storage | 15–20% | 7 |
| Deploy and manage Azure compute resources | 20–25% | 4, 5, 8 |
| Implement and manage virtual networking | 15–20% | 3, 6 |
| Monitor and maintain Azure resources | 10–15% | 9, 10 |
Source: the official AZ-104 study guide. When you finish, try the free practice assessment to see where you are.