DevOps Microsoft Azure Syllabus

Microsoft Azure syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Microsoft Azure in DevOps, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Introduction to Azure

   2 topics

   • What is Azure?
     • Overview of Cloud Computing
     • Azure vs Other Cloud Providers
     • Azure Global Infrastructure
   • Azure Services
     • Compute Services
     • Storage Services
     • Networking Services
     • Database Services
2. 2

   Azure Administration

   3 topics

   • Azure Portal
     • Navigating the Azure Portal
     • Creating and Managing Resources
   • Azure CLI
     • Installing Azure CLI
     • Basic Commands
     • Managing Resources with CLI
   • Azure PowerShell
     • Installing Azure PowerShell
     • Basic Cmdlets
     • Scripting with Azure PowerShell
3. 3

   Azure Compute Services

   3 topics

   • Virtual Machines
     • Creating Virtual Machines
     • Managing Virtual Machines
     • Scaling Virtual Machines
   • Azure App Services
     • Creating Web Apps
     • Configuring App Settings
     • Monitoring and Scaling
   • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
     • Introduction to Containers and Kubernetes
     • Setting up AKS
     • Deploying Applications on AKS
4. 4

   Azure Storage Services

   3 topics

   • Azure Blob Storage
     • Creating and Managing Blob Containers
     • Uploading and Accessing Blobs
     • Blob Storage Tiers
   • Azure File Storage
     • Creating File Shares
     • Mounting File Shares
     • Managing File Shares
   • Azure Disk Storage
     • Managed Disks
     • Unmanaged Disks
     • Disk Performance Tiers
5. 5

   Azure Networking

   3 topics

   • Virtual Networks (VNet)
     • Creating and Configuring VNets
     • Subnets and IP Addressing
     • Network Security Groups
   • Azure Load Balancer
     • Setting up Load Balancers
     • Configuring Load Balancing Rules
     • Monitoring Load Balancers
   • Azure VPN Gateway
     • Site-to-Site VPN
     • Point-to-Site VPN
     • ExpressRoute
6. 6

   Azure Database Services

   3 topics

   • Azure SQL Database
     • Creating SQL Databases
     • Configuring SQL Databases
     • Scaling and Performance Tuning
   • Azure Cosmos DB
     • Introduction to Cosmos DB
     • Creating and Managing Databases
     • Global Distribution and Scaling
   • Azure Database for MySQL/PostgreSQL
     • Setting up Databases
     • Configuration and Management
     • Backup and Restore
7. 7

   Azure Security and Compliance

   3 topics

   • Azure Active Directory
     • User and Group Management
     • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
     • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
   • Azure Security Center
     • Security Posture Management
     • Threat Protection
     • Compliance Management
   • Azure Key Vault
     • Storing and Managing Secrets
     • Key Management
     • Certificate Management
8. 8

   Azure Monitoring and Management

   3 topics

   • Azure Monitor
     • Monitoring Metrics and Logs
     • Setting up Alerts
     • Application Insights
   • Azure Automation
     • Runbooks
     • Automation Accounts
     • Configuration Management
   • Azure Resource Manager (ARM)
     • ARM Templates
     • Deploying Resources with ARM
     • Resource Group Management

Microsoft Azure flashcards for DevOps

25 of 53 cards from the Microsoft Azure deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is Microsoft Azure?

   A public cloud computing platform from Microsoft offering on-demand IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS services (compute, storage, networking, databases, AI) over a global network of data centers on a pay-as-you-go basis.

2. What are the three main cloud service models, and how does Azure provide each?

   IaaS (e.g., Azure Virtual Machines, Virtual Networks), PaaS (e.g., Azure App Service, Azure SQL Database), and SaaS (e.g., Microsoft 365). IaaS gives the most control; SaaS gives the least management overhead.

3. What is an Azure Region and an Availability Zone?

   A Region is a geographic set of data centers within a latency boundary. An Availability Zone is one or more physically separate data centers within a region with independent power, cooling, and networking, used for high availability.

4. How do Azure Resource Groups organize resources?

   A Resource Group is a logical container that holds related Azure resources sharing the same lifecycle, allowing them to be deployed, managed, and deleted together. Every resource belongs to exactly one resource group.

5. What is Azure Resource Manager (ARM)?

   The deployment and management layer (control plane) for Azure. All requests go through ARM, which provides consistent management, role-based access control, tagging, and declarative ARM/Bicep templates for infrastructure as code.

6. What is the Azure Portal?

   A web-based, unified graphical console (portal.azure.com) for creating, configuring, monitoring, and managing Azure resources through a browser, including dashboards, blades, and Cloud Shell.

7. What is Azure Cloud Shell?

   A browser-based interactive shell, accessible from the Azure Portal, that provides authenticated Bash or PowerShell environments with the Azure CLI and Az PowerShell pre-installed and persistent storage backed by an Azure file share.

8. What is the Azure CLI and what is its command structure?

   A cross-platform command-line tool for managing Azure resources. Commands follow the pattern az <group> <subgroup> <command>, e.g. az vm create or az group list.

9. Which Azure CLI command signs you in, and which sets the active subscription?

   az login signs you in (opens a browser or uses device code). az account set --subscription <id-or-name> selects the active subscription.

10. Write the Azure CLI command to create a resource group named myRG in the East US region.

    az group create --name myRG --location eastus

11. What is Azure PowerShell (the Az module)?

    A set of PowerShell cmdlets for managing Azure resources from the PowerShell command line or scripts. It uses the Verb-Noun convention with an Az prefix, e.g. New-AzResourceGroup or Get-AzVM.

12. In Azure PowerShell, which cmdlet authenticates you and which creates a VM?

    Connect-AzAccount authenticates the session; New-AzVM creates a virtual machine.

13. Compare Azure CLI vs Azure PowerShell.

    Both manage Azure via the command line and call ARM. Azure CLI uses az <group> <command> syntax (popular on Linux/cross-platform). Azure PowerShell uses Verb-Az-Noun cmdlets and returns rich .NET objects, integrating with PowerShell scripting and pipelines.

14. What is an Azure Virtual Machine (VM)?

    An IaaS offering that provides an on-demand, scalable virtualized computer (Windows or Linux) in the cloud, giving full control over the OS while Azure manages the underlying physical hardware.

15. What are the typical Azure VM series/families and their focus?

    B-series (burstable, low cost), D-series (general purpose), E/M-series (memory-optimized), F-series (compute-optimized), L-series (storage-optimized), and N-series (GPU). The series determines the CPU/memory/GPU balance.

16. What is an Azure Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS)?

    A service that lets you deploy and manage a group of identical, load-balanced VMs that can automatically scale out or in based on demand or a schedule, supporting high availability and elastic capacity.

17. What is Azure App Service?

    A fully managed PaaS for building and hosting web apps, REST APIs, and mobile backends in multiple languages (.NET, Java, Node.js, Python, PHP) without managing the underlying infrastructure, with built-in autoscaling, CI/CD, and custom domains/SSL.

18. What is a deployment slot in Azure App Service?

    A live, separately addressable app instance (e.g., a staging slot) within the same App Service plan. You can deploy and test there, then swap it with production for zero-downtime releases and easy rollback.

19. What is Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)?

    A managed Kubernetes container orchestration service where Azure hosts and manages the Kubernetes control plane (free) while you manage and pay for the agent/worker nodes that run your containerized workloads.

20. In AKS, what is a node vs. a pod?

    A node is a VM in the cluster that runs workloads (part of a node pool). A pod is the smallest deployable Kubernetes unit, holding one or more containers; multiple pods run on each node.

21. What is the difference between AKS and Azure Container Instances (ACI)?

    AKS provides full Kubernetes orchestration for complex, scalable multi-container workloads. ACI runs single containers quickly without orchestration—best for simple, short-lived, or burst tasks. AKS can burst to ACI via virtual nodes.

22. What is Azure Blob Storage?

    A massively scalable object storage service for unstructured data (images, video, logs, backups, documents). Data is stored as blobs inside containers within a storage account, accessible over HTTP/HTTPS and REST.

23. What are the three types of blobs in Azure Blob Storage?

    Block blobs (text/binary files, optimized for large uploads), Append blobs (optimized for append operations like logging), and Page blobs (random read/write, used for VHD disks of Azure VMs).

24. What are the Azure Blob Storage access tiers?

    Hot (frequent access, highest storage cost, lowest access cost), Cool (infrequent access, ~30-day minimum), Cold (rarely accessed, ~90-day minimum), and Archive (offline, lowest storage cost, highest retrieval cost/latency).

25. What is Azure Files (Azure File Storage)?

    A fully managed file share service in the cloud accessible via the SMB and NFS protocols (and REST). Shares can be mounted concurrently by cloud or on-premises Windows, Linux, and macOS clients.

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