AZ-300 Study Guide: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies

Under the certification “Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert”, there are two exams – AZ-300 and AZ-301. This blog post addresses AZ-300.

Exam AZ-300 is intended for Solution Architects who have been designing and architect-ing Azure based solutions for two to five years.

For Certification details check out this link

For the exam details, check out this link

Here are the skills that the exam AZ-300 measures –

Deploy and configure infrastructure (25-30%)
Implement workloads and security (20-25%)
Create and deploy apps (5-10%)
Implement authentication and secure data (5-10%)
Develop for the cloud and for Azure storage (20-25%)

Rather than mapping each of the skills mentioned above, I am going to list the different concepts that a candidate should be aware of and preferably, should have hands-on experience as well. I believe this will simplify the preparation path for the candidates who are looking forward to earn this certification.

Azure Monitor
- Configuring Diagnostic Settings for Azure Resources
- Different types of captured data
- Application Insights
- Alerts in Azure Monitor
- Setting up alert rules and action groups
- Alerting based on dynamic thresholds for resources
- Log Analytics and Activity Logs
- Querying log tables using KQL
Azure Storage
- Blobs, Tables, Queues and Files
  - Blobs vs Files
  - Different types of Blobs
- Data Lake Storage
- Different Access tiers
  - Hot vs Cool vs Archive
- Performance tiers
- Types of Azure Storage Account
- Data Redundancy options
  - LRS vs ZRS vs GRS vs RA-GRS vs GZRS vs RA-GZRS
- Azure Storage Account Failover
- Secure transfer
- Controlling network access to storage account
- Azure Monitor for Storage
- Authorization mechanisms in Azure Storage
- Configuring CDN (Content Delivery Network)
- Using Azure Storage Explorer
- Using AzCopy
Creating and Setting up Virtual Machines in Azure
- - Different VM sizes
  - Windows vs Linux VMs
  - Assigning NICs and Public IPs to VM
  - RDP/SSH connections to VMs
  - Azure Bastion
  - Setting up extensions
  - Managed disks for VMs
  - OS disk vs Data Disk
  - HDD vs SSDs
  - Azure Disk Encryption
  - Monitor VM
  - Dedicated Hosts and Spot VMs
  - What are VM scalesets?
    - Create a VM Scaleset
High Availability in Azure
- Availability Zones vs Availability Sets
- Co-location
Azure Backup & Azure Site Recovery
- Backing up Azure VMs
- Setting up Recovery Services Vault
ARM templates overview
- ARM best practices
- ARM deployment modes
- Deploying ARM Templates using CLI / Powershell / Portal
- Create a Windows VM using ARM Template
- Create a Linux VM using ARM Template or with CLI
- Configure VHD deployment template
- Deploy VM extensions using ARM
- Save a deployment as an ARM template
What are Virtual Networks in Azure?
- Setting up a VNET and SubNets under it
- Planning VNets
- Connecting two or more VNets
  - VNET Peering
- Configuring Site-to-site VNet connectivity
- VNET Traffic Routing
  - Route Network Traffic
- Troubleshooting Network performance
What are Virtual Network Gateways?
- Setting up VNET Gateways using powershell
- Configure a VNet-to-VNet VPN gateway connection by using the Azure portal
- Troubleshoot VPN Gateway
What are Express Routes?
- Express Route Connectivity Model
- Create and modify an Express Route Circuit
- Troubleshoot Express Route Connectivity
Virtual WAN
- Create a Site-to-Site connection or point-to-site connection using Virtual WAN
- Associate Express route with Virtual WAN
Public vs Private IP addresses in Azure
- Assign public IP to an existing VM
What are network Security Groups?
- Allowing or Denying traffic to VMs or subnets
What are Application Security Groups?
What is Azure Active Directory?
- Setting up AAD tenant
- Adding a custom domain
- Configure Azure AD Self Service Password Reset
- Connecting AAD with on-prem Active Directory using AD Connect
  - Azure AD connect sync
  - Password hash vs pass through authentication
  - Single Sign on
    - How single sign on works?
  - Password Writeback
  - Configure AD federation using Azure AD Connect
- How Multi-Factor authentication works?
  - MFA licensing
  - Configuring Multi-Factor authentication
    - Configure user accounts
    - Configure Fraud alerts
    - Configure one-time bypass
    - Configure Trusted IPs
    - Configure Verification methods
- Conditional Access Policies
  - Configure MFA policy / Configure Terms of Use Policy
- Azure AD Identity Protection
- Azure AD Join
  - Configure Azure AD join for Managed Domains and Federated Domains
- Multiple Azure AD Tenants
Role-based Access Control
- Configuring role based access for Azure Resources
- Built-in roles vs Custom Roles
  - Create custom role using Powershell or CLI
- Elevate access to manage all Azure subscriptions and management Groups
- Assign RBAC roles
- Privileged Identity Management
- Troubleshoot RBAC
Microsoft Identity Platform
- Azure Active Directory
- Authentication Scenarios
- Authentication Flows and application scenarios
- OAuth 2.0 with Azure AD
  - ID Tokens and Access Tokens
  - Certificate Credentials
- Service Principals
- Implement Multi Factor Authentication with Azure AD
- Managed Identities
  - System-assigned and User-assigned identities
Key Vault
- Set and retrieve a secret from Azure Key Vault using Portal / CLI / Powershell
- Use Azure Key Vault with an Azure web app in .Net
Azure confidential Computing
1. Protect your data with Azure Confidential Computing
Security
- Encryption at rest
- Encryption in transit
- Azure Encryption Models
Azure Policies
- Create and Manage Azure Policies
Azure Migrate
- Migrate Hyper-V VMs to Azure
Serverless In Azure
- Azure functions
  - Hosting Plan Options
  - Triggers and Bindings
    - Supported Bindings
  - Different types of Triggers – timer, blob, Service Bus and webhook
  - Durable Functions
  - Create Functions using Python
- Azure Logic Apps
- Azure Event Grid
  - Event Grid Concepts
- Azure Service Bus
  - Queues vs Topics
Different load balancing options in Azure
- Azure Load Balancer
  - Internal vs External Load Balancer
- Azure Application Gateway
  - Configuring WAF
- Azure Traffic manager
  - Different routing options within Traffic manager
- Azure FrontDoor
  - Create a FrontDoor
Azure App Services
- Different hosting options
- Azure Web Apps
- Azure Mobile Apps
- Azure API Apps
  - Generate OpenAPI definition
- Configure SSL certificate
- Import a certificate from Key Vault in an app service
Container support in Azure
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
  - Create and configure AKS cluster
  - Run Containers in AKS
- Azure Container registry
  - Create ACR and push an image to ACR
- Azure Container Instances
  - Run containers in ACI
- Build a container image using Docker file
Azure Cosmos DB
- Create Cosmos DB
- Partitioning in Cosmos DB
- Consistency levels in Cosmos DB
Azure SQL Databases
- Provision and configure Azure SQL Databases
- Elastic pools
- Connect to SQL database from code
- Pricing tiers
  - Serverless offering
- Azure SQL Database for PostgreSQL
  - Hyperscale Instances
- Failover Groups
Event based solutions in Azure
- Azure Event Grid
- Azure Notification Hubs
  - Create and Configure a notification hub
- Azure Event Hub
  - Create an Event Hub
Auto Scaling
- Best practices for Auto Scaling
- Create an autoscale setting for Azure Resources
FAQs

Apart from the above information, you can use the following resources as well for your preparation –

Hope this helps in your preparation!!

Share

Copy short link