Chapter 0

Start here

You passed AZ-104 about two years ago, so the basics are still in there. This chapter tells you what Azure changed in the meantime and gets your lab environment ready: a Linux VM with the Azure tools installed, from which you run every command in this guide.

What changed since you took the exam

The skills outline itself has not changed since October 2023. Azure has, so some things you remember are renamed or retired. If an exam question mentions a retired option, it is usually the wrong answer.

How the labs are set up

All labs run in one resource group called rg-az104-lab in one region. Chapter 10 also uses a second region for disaster recovery. Resource names follow the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework abbreviations, which is also how AZ-305 expects you to think about naming.

Your Linux admin VM

Every command in this guide runs in a Bash terminal on a Linux VM that you control (your "admin workstation"). Unlike Azure Cloud Shell, it is persistent: installed tools, files, SSH keys and your saved variables are still there next time.

• The guide assumes an Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04 LTS VM in AWS (an EC2 instance; the default user ubuntu can run sudo). You connect to it over SSH from your laptop.
• Because it lives outside Azure, it isn't touched when chapter 10 deletes rg-az104-lab.
• It has a different public IP from your browser. Chapters 7 and 8 use that: you allow only your browser's IP through a firewall, and the VM plays the "outsider" that gets blocked. You save the VM's IP as $MYIP.
• It has no desktop or browser, so you sign in to Azure with a device code (task 3).

Your values

Fill these in once. Every page then shows your names in the instructions and code blocks (the orange text). Storage accounts and registries need globally unique names, so pick 2–6 letters or digits, for example your initials plus a number.

Your storage account will be staz104xx01 and your registry acraz104xx. Pick a main region that has availability zones (all regions in this list do).

If you own a domain, chapters 3 and 8 have optional tasks that use the subdomain lab.yourdomain.com. Your main domain and its email are not touched.

1. Task

   Get a Linux VM ready

   Have your Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 LTS EC2 instance running (see Your Linux admin VM above) and connect with SSH. Its security group only needs SSH inbound from your IP; outbound to the internet must be allowed (the default). Bring its packages up to date and install the basic tools the labs use: curl, jq, git, unzip, nano and nslookup.

   Done when

   • lsb_release -d shows Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04.
   • jq --version and nslookup -version both work.
   Hint

   nslookup lives in the package dnsutils (Ubuntu 24.04 also calls it bind9-dnsutils).

   Solution · Linux

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade
   sudo apt-get install -y curl ca-certificates gnupg lsb-release jq git unzip nano dnsutils
   lsb_release -d; jq --version; nslookup -version

2. Task

   Install the Azure tools

   Install the three tools the labs depend on:

   • Azure CLI (az) from Microsoft's package repository, so that apt upgrade keeps it current;
   • Bicep (chapter 4);
   • AzCopy v10 (chapter 7), on your PATH.
   Done when

   • az version, az bicep version and azcopy --version all print a version.
   Hint

   Microsoft publishes a one-line installer for the CLI on Debian/Ubuntu (aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb). Bicep installs through the CLI. AzCopy is a single binary in a .tar.gz.

   Solution · Linux

   # Azure CLI (adds the packages.microsoft.com repo and installs azure-cli)
   curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash
   az version
   
   # Bicep (installed into ~/.azure/bin and used by az deployment ... -f file.bicep)
   az bicep install
   az bicep version
   
   # AzCopy v10 (on a Graviton/ARM instance use downloadazcopy-v10-linux-arm64)
   curl -sL https://aka.ms/downloadazcopy-v10-linux -o /tmp/azcopy.tgz
   tar -xzf /tmp/azcopy.tgz -C /tmp
   sudo install -m 755 /tmp/azcopy_linux_*/azcopy /usr/local/bin/azcopy
   azcopy --version

   Prefer to see what the installer does first? The Install the Azure CLI on Linux page has the same steps one by one.

   Later updates: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade azure-cli and az bicep upgrade.

3. Task

   Sign in to your lab subscription

   Sign in with the Azure CLI as the Global Administrator of your lab tenant (with MFA) and make sure the CLI points at your lab subscription.

   Done when

   • A command shows your lab subscription's name and tenant ID.
   Hint

   A VM without a desktop or browser can't open the sign-in page itself. There's a sign-in flow where you enter a short code in a browser on another device.

   Solution · Azure CLI

   az login --use-device-code    # open the shown URL in your laptop's browser and enter the code
   
   az account show --query "{name:name, id:id, tenant:tenantId}" -o table
   # if you have more than one subscription:
   # az account set --subscription "<name or id>"

   The sign-in is cached in ~/.azure, so you normally only do this once. If a command later says your token expired, run az login again.

4. Task

   Register the resource providers you will need

   A resource provider (like Microsoft.Network) must be registered in a subscription before you can create its resources. Register these now so you don't have to wait later: Microsoft.App, Microsoft.ContainerInstance, Microsoft.ContainerRegistry, Microsoft.OperationalInsights, Microsoft.Insights, Microsoft.RecoveryServices, Microsoft.DataProtection, Microsoft.Web, Microsoft.AlertsManagement, Microsoft.PolicyInsights.

   Done when

   • All of them show Registered (or Registering) under Subscription → Resource providers.
   Solution · Portal

   Subscriptions → your subscription → Settings → Resource providers. Search each name, select it and click Register.

   Solution · Azure CLI

   for p in Microsoft.App Microsoft.ContainerInstance Microsoft.ContainerRegistry \
            Microsoft.OperationalInsights Microsoft.Insights Microsoft.RecoveryServices \
            Microsoft.DataProtection Microsoft.Web Microsoft.AlertsManagement Microsoft.PolicyInsights; do
     az provider register --namespace $p
   done
   az provider list --query "[?starts_with(namespace,'Microsoft.')].{ns:namespace, state:registrationState}" -o table

   Exam trap

   "Deployment fails with The subscription is not registered to use namespace X." The fix is to register the resource provider, not to change RBAC roles or quotas.

5. Task

   Save your lab variables for good

   Save the block below in a file ~/az104.env and make every new terminal load it automatically. It also stores the VM's public IP as $MYIP and creates a working folder ~/az104.

   RG=rg-az104-lab
   LOC=westeurope
   LOC2=northeurope
   INIT=xx
   ST=staz104${INIT}01
   ACR=acraz104${INIT}
   MYIP=$(curl -s https://api.ipify.org)

   Done when

   • In a new terminal, echo $RG $ST $MYIP prints your values and an IP address.
   Solution · Linux

   cat > ~/az104.env <<'EOF'
   RG=rg-az104-lab
   LOC=westeurope
   LOC2=northeurope
   INIT=xx
   ST=staz104${INIT}01
   ACR=acraz104${INIT}
   MYIP=$(curl -s https://api.ipify.org)
   EOF
   echo '[ -f ~/az104.env ] && . ~/az104.env' >> ~/.bashrc
   mkdir -p ~/az104
   . ~/az104.env; echo $RG $ST $MYIP

   Each lab still starts with a short variable block. Pasting it again is harmless; it's there in case you skipped this step or work in another shell.