Carlos PenaAZ-104: Azure Administrator Live Study Guide
Welcome to my live study guide for the AZ-104: Azure Administrator certification!
The idea is to have a living-breathing document that I will update as I work through my studies. It is my attempt to create a study routine others can reproduce easily. My hope is that a clear study path with time budgeting will spare me unneeded frustration while still allowing plenty of time for important things like family.
My target exam date is Saturday, Dec 4th, 2020 :
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2020.10.20
- Pushing my target date way out to Dec 4th, 2020. Need to disconnect for a bit and work on other things.
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2020.09.28
- Some unexpected travel and sickness 😷… I calculate I’m about 32 hours or 16 days behind schedule. Feeling better. Time to regroup and get back to it! Not overthinking it and just putting in some extra time where possible. The important thing is to get reading and labbing right away. Will do my best not to adjust my target date.
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2020.09.09
- I have chosen CloudSkills.io AZ-104 Azure Administrator Exam Prep Course as my second video training course. On sale for $7. Really excited to finally try them out as I’ve heard great things!
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2020.09.08
- Day one.
- Time budget is 2 hours a day.
- Target exam date is Oct 30th, 2020.
Skills Measured
Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator – Skills Measured (PDF) 📝
- Manage Azure identities and governance (15-20%)
- Implement and manage storage (10-15%)
- Deploy and manage Azure compute resources (25-30%)
- Configure and manage virtual networking (30-35%)
- Monitor and back up Azure resources (10-15%)
The Study Plan
Phase 1: Microsoft Learning Path
In Phase 1, I plan on working my way through all the Microsoft Learning Path modules. In addition I will be completing each of the Microsoft GitHub AZ-104 Labs.
| Resource | Planned Time | |
|---|---|---|
| ✅ | AZ-104: Manage identities and governance in Azure | 7.5 hours |
| ⬜ | AZ-104: Implement and manage storage in Azure | 5.5 hours |
| ⬜ | AZ-104: Deploy and manage Azure compute resources | 11.5 hours |
| ⬜ | AZ-104: Configure and manage virtual networks for Azure administrators | 11 hours |
| ⬜ | AZ-104: Monitor and back up Azure resources | 6.5 hours |
| Total | ~42 hours |
| Resource | Time | |
|---|---|---|
| ⬜ | Lab 01 - Manage Azure Active Directory Identities | 30 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 02a - Manage Subscriptions and RBAC | 30 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 02b - Manage Governance via Azure Policy | 30 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 03a - Manage Azure resources by Using the Azure Portal | 20 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 03b - Manage Azure resources by Using ARM Templates | 20 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 03c - Manage Azure resources by Using Azure PowerShell | 20 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 03d - Manage Azure resources by Using Azure CLI | 20 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 04 - Implement Virtual Networking | 40 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 05 - Implement Intersite Connectivity | 30 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 06 - Implement Traffic Management | 60 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 07 - Manage Azure Storage | 40 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 08 - Manage Virtual Machines | 50 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 09a - Implement Web Apps | 30 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 09b - Implement Azure Container Instances | 20 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 09c - Implement Azure Kubernetes Service | 40 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 10 - Backup virtual machines | 50 min |
| ⬜ | Lab 11 - Implement Monitoring | 45 min |
| Total | ~10 hours |
MS Learning Path:
42 hours / 2 hours a day = 21 days
MS GitHub AZ-104 Labs:
10 hours / 2 hours a day = 5 days
Phase 2: Video Training
In Phase 2, I plan on using video learning, as by this point I should be somewhat familiar with the exam topics. I plan on using SkylinesAcademy AZ-104 on Udemy by Nick Colyer as my main resource as I did for AZ-900.
[Updated 2020.09.09] I stumbled across a great deal on CloudSkills.io AZ-104 Azure Administrator Exam Prep Course, for only $7. Very excited to try them out as I’ve heard great things.
| Resource | Time | |
|---|---|---|
| ⬜ | SkylinesAcademy AZ-104 on Udemy by Nick Colyer | 12 hours |
| ⬜ | CloudSkills.io AZ-104 Azure Administrator Exam Prep Course | 12 hours |
| Total | 24 hours |
SkyLines:
12 hours / 2 hours a day = 6 days
CloudSkills.io:
12 hours / 2 hours a day = 6 days
Phase 3: Practice Exams & MS Docs
In the third and final phase, I plan on spending several hours in practice exams. Each WhizLabs practice test consists of 55 questions. For my AZ-900 WhizLab practice exams I found it critical to read the answer guide for each question, and follow up with Microsoft Documentation to really make it stick in my brain. I felt it was a great strategy and I will be repeating it here. Each practice exam has been given 2.5 hours for the first take, to allow time for deep-diving into each answer. I have also budgeted 5 hours for Microsoft Docs and another 5 hours to re-take the practice tests at least once, at a faster pace, and only stopping on questions that I still don’t fully understand.
| Resource | Time | |
|---|---|---|
| ⬜ | WhizLabs: Practice Test 1 | 2.5 hours |
| ⬜ | WhizLabs: Practice Test 2 | 2.5 hours |
| ⬜ | WhizLabs: Practice Test 3 | 2.5 hours |
| ⬜ | WhizLabs: Practice Test 4 | 2.5 hours |
| ⬜ | WhizLabs: Practice Test Re-takes | 5 hours |
| ⬜ | Microsoft Docs | 5 hours |
| Total | 20 hours |
WhizLabs:
10 hours / 2 hours a day = 5 days
MS Docs:
10 hours / 2 hours a day = 5 days
Total Time Commitment
My final time calculations based on a budget of 2 hours a day.
| Phase 1 | Phase 2 | Phase 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 52 hours | 24 hours | 20 hours | 96 hours |
| 26 days | 12 days | 10 days | 48 days |
Using PowerShell, I calculate 52 days total from 2020-09-08 to 2020-10-30. This leaves a 4-day buffer, which should be enough to account for any missed days. If needed, I can also dip into the 12 hours\6 days I have budgeted for the extra video training.
$(New-TimeSpan -Start '2020-09-08' -End '2020-10-30').Days
52
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