Real-Life Scenarios Every Azure Admin Should Know for AZ-104

The Microsoft Azure AZ-104 certification is a pivotal milestone for any aspiring Azure administrator. It validates your ability to manage Azure subscriptions, secure identities, and monitor cloud resources effectively. However, excelling in this certification—and in your role as an Azure administrator—requires more than theoretical knowledge. Real-life scenarios play a critical role in preparing for the AZ-104 and ensuring you’re equipped for the challenges of cloud administration.

In this blog, we will explore practical scenarios every Azure admin should master, providing insights that go beyond the exam and into day-to-day responsibilities.

1. Managing Azure Subscriptions and Resources

One of the foundational responsibilities of an Azure administrator is managing subscriptions and resources effectively. Real-life scenarios often involve the following challenges:

Scenario: Subscription Cost Optimization

Imagine you’re tasked with reducing costs for a company’s Azure subscription. Through Azure Cost Management + Billing, you analyze spending patterns and discover that unused virtual machines (VMs) and over-provisioned resources are driving up costs.

Solution:

Identify and deallocate unused VMs.

Implement Azure Reserved Instances for predictable workloads.

Use Azure Advisor to receive personalized recommendations for cost optimization.

Takeaway: Cost efficiency is critical for Azure administration. Always monitor usage and implement cost-saving measures proactively.

2. Implementing and Managing Storage Accounts

Azure storage is essential for data retention and application functionality. As an admin, you’ll often deal with scenarios requiring robust storage management.

Scenario: Resolving Storage Access Issues

A development team reports they’re unable to access data stored in Azure Blob Storage. Upon investigation, you find that storage access policies are misconfigured.

Solution:

Validate that the correct Shared Access Signature (SAS) tokens or access keys are in use.

Ensure that firewall and virtual network rules allow access from the necessary IP ranges or subnets.

Check for permissions issues in Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).

Takeaway: Properly configuring access policies and understanding Azure’s security model for storage are essential to avoid disruptions.

3. Configuring Virtual Networks (VNets) and Connectivity

Networking is a core Azure component. You’ll often be required to configure virtual networks and establish secure connectivity.

Scenario: Connecting On-Premises to Azure via VPN

Your organization wants to connect its on-premises network to Azure for hybrid cloud scenarios. The challenge is to set up a secure site-to-site VPN.

Solution:

Configure a Virtual Network Gateway in Azure.

Use a compatible VPN device on-premises, and configure it to establish the connection.

Test connectivity and ensure data flows securely between both networks.

Takeaway: Azure administrators must be proficient in designing and troubleshooting network connectivity to facilitate hybrid cloud setups.

4. Managing Identities and Governance

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is at the heart of identity and access management in Azure. Missteps here can lead to security breaches or operational inefficiencies.

Scenario: Managing Conditional Access Policies

Your organization wants to enforce multi factor authentication (MFA) for all users accessing Azure resources remotely.

Solution:

Create Conditional Access policies in Azure AD.

Specify conditions, such as the location being outside the corporate network.

Require MFA for these scenarios, ensuring secure remote access.

Takeaway: A well-implemented identity strategy ensures secure and efficient access to resources.

5. Deploying and Managing Azure Compute Resources

Azure VMs, containers, and App Services are core compute options that you’ll manage daily.

Scenario: Auto Scaling an Application

A web application experiences performance issues due to sudden spikes in traffic. You’re required to implement a solution that ensures high availability without manual intervention.

Solution:

Use an App Service Plan with Autoscale enabled.

Define scaling rules based on metrics like CPU usage or HTTP request counts.

Monitor the application to ensure scaling works as expected.

Takeaway: Autoscaling is vital for maintaining application performance during traffic fluctuations.

6. Monitoring and Maintaining Azure Resources

Effective monitoring is crucial for identifying issues before they escalate. Azure Monitor and Log Analytics provide deep insights into resource performance.

Scenario: Diagnosing High Resource Utilization

Your team notices degraded application performance. Azure Monitor indicates high CPU usage on a VM hosting critical services.

Solution:

Use Azure Monitor to identify processes consuming excessive CPU.

Scale the VM to a higher SKU or optimize the application workload.

Set alerts to notify the team of high resource usage in the future.

Takeaway: Proactive monitoring ensures resource issues are addressed before they impact business operations.

7. Implementing Security Solutions

Security is a top priority in any cloud environment, and Azure administrators play a key role in safeguarding resources.

Scenario: Responding to a Security Threat

A security alert from Azure Security Center indicates suspicious login attempts from an unknown IP address.

Solution:

Use Azure AD Sign-In Logs to investigate the activity.

Block the IP address using Azure Firewall or NSGs.

Implement Azure AD Identity Protection to automatically detect and respond to threats.

Takeaway: Familiarity with Azure’s security tools helps you respond swiftly to potential threats.

Conclusion

Mastering real-life scenarios is critical for Azure administrators pursuing the AZ-104 certification. From managing costs and resources to ensuring secure access and responding to performance issues, these scenarios prepare you to handle the challenges of real-world Azure administration.

As you prepare for AZ-104, focus not just on the exam objectives but also on gaining hands-on experience with these scenarios. Doing so will not only help you ace the certification but also excel as a skilled Azure administrator in any professional environment.