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🇬🇧 Microsoft Azure Certifications (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-900) · subject

Microsoft Azure Certifications (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-900) Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (AZ-104) Syllabus

The Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (AZ-104) syllabus for Microsoft Azure Certifications (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-900) in full: 3 chapters, 9 topics and 20 sub-topics, every one listed below, plus 49 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (AZ-104) flashcards with answers.

3Chapters
9Topics
20Sub-topics
49Flashcards

Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (AZ-104) syllabus: all 3 chapters

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics.

  1. Automated Deployment with Templates

     3 topics
    • ARM templates and Bicep
      • Template structure: parameters, variables, resources, outputs
      • Authoring and converting between ARM JSON and Bicep
      • Deploying templates and exporting from existing resources
    • Template deployment scope and modes
      • Resource group versus subscription deployments
      • Incremental versus complete deployment modes
    • Reusable deployment patterns
      • Linked and nested templates
      • Template specs and Bicep modules

  2. Virtual Machine Management

     3 topics
    • Creating and configuring VMs
      • VM sizing and resizing
      • Disks: OS, data and managed disk types
      • VM extensions and custom script extension
    • Availability and resiliency
      • Availability sets, zones and update domains
      • Virtual Machine Scale Sets and autoscaling
    • VM connectivity and configuration
      • Network interfaces and public IP assignment
      • Just-in-time access and Azure Bastion

  3. Containers and App Service

     3 topics
    • Azure Container Instances and Registry
      • Deploying container groups in ACI
      • Azure Container Registry image management
    • Azure Container Apps
      • Container app deployment and scaling rules
    • Azure App Service
      • Creating App Service plans and web apps
      • Deployment slots and slot swapping
      • Scaling and custom domain/TLS configuration

Microsoft Azure Certifications (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-900) Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (AZ-104) flashcards — 49 questions with answers

  1. What is an ARM template and in what format is it written?

    An Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template is a JSON file that declaratively defines the infrastructure and configuration for an Azure deployment. ARM reads the template and provisions the described resources idempotently.

  2. What is Bicep and how does it relate to ARM templates?

    Bicep is a domain-specific language (DSL) that provides a cleaner, more concise syntax for authoring Azure deployments. It is transpiled into standard ARM JSON before deployment, so it is functionally equivalent but easier to read and maintain.

  3. List the main top-level elements (sections) of an ARM JSON template.

    $schema, contentVersion, parameters, variables, functions (user-defined), resources, and outputs.

  4. In ARM/Bicep, what is the difference between parameters and variables?

    Parameters are values supplied at deployment time (allowing customization per environment), while variables are values computed and reused within the template and are not provided externally.

  5. What command compiles a Bicep file to ARM JSON, and what command decompiles JSON to Bicep?

    az bicep build compiles .bicep to ARM JSON; az bicep decompile converts ARM JSON to .bicep.

  6. What are the four deployment scopes available for ARM/Bicep deployments?

    Resource group, subscription, management group, and tenant scope.

  7. What are the two deployment modes for ARM templates, and how do they differ?

    Incremental mode (default) adds/updates resources in the template but leaves resources not mentioned untouched. Complete mode deletes any resources in the resource group that are not defined in the template.

  8. Which deployment mode is the default, and why is Complete mode used with caution?

    Incremental is the default. Complete mode is risky because it deletes existing resources in the resource group that are absent from the template, potentially removing resources you wanted to keep.

  9. In Bicep, how do you define a resource at the subscription scope (e.g., to create a resource group)?

    Set targetScope = 'subscription' at the top of the file, then declare the resourceGroup resource. Resource group creation can only be done at subscription scope or higher, not within a resource group scope.

  10. What is a Bicep module and why is it used?

    A Bicep module is a separate .bicep file referenced via the module keyword. Modules enable reusable, composable deployment patterns by encapsulating a set of resources that can be invoked with parameters from a parent file.

  11. In ARM templates, what construct lets you deploy the same resource multiple times in a loop?

    The copy element (or the copyIndex() function in JSON); in Bicep the for expression. This enables creating multiple instances of a resource from an array or count.

  12. What is an Azure Verified Module (or template spec) used for in reusable deployment patterns?

    A template spec stores an ARM/Bicep template as a first-class Azure resource so it can be shared, versioned, and reused across the organization with RBAC, without needing to store the file externally.

  13. What does idempotency mean in the context of ARM/Bicep deployments?

    Deploying the same template multiple times produces the same resulting resource state; ARM compares desired state to actual state and only makes necessary changes.

  14. What ARM/Bicep operation previews changes before actually deploying them?

    The what-if operation (az deployment group what-if), which shows resources that will be created, modified, or deleted without applying the changes.

  15. What are the required components you must specify when creating an Azure VM?

    Subscription, resource group, VM name, region, image (OS), size (SKU), administrator credentials (or SSH key), and networking (VNet/subnet, NIC, optional public IP).

  16. What determines the cost, CPU, memory, and capabilities of an Azure VM?

    The VM size (SKU), e.g., the B-series (burstable), D-series (general purpose), F-series (compute optimized), E/M-series (memory optimized), and N-series (GPU).

  17. What are the three disk roles attached to an Azure VM?

    The OS disk, an optional temporary disk (local, non-persistent), and one or more data disks for persistent application data.

  18. Which managed disk types does Azure offer, ordered by performance?

    Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD, and Ultra Disk (highest IOPS/throughput, lowest latency).

  19. What is the difference between an Availability Set and an Availability Zone?

    An Availability Set protects VMs within a single datacenter by spreading them across fault and update domains. Availability Zones protect against datacenter failure by distributing VMs across physically separate zones within a region.

  20. Define fault domain and update domain in an Availability Set.

    A fault domain is a group of VMs sharing common power and network hardware (protects against hardware failure). An update domain is a group of VMs that can be rebooted together during planned maintenance (protects against downtime from updates).

Show the other 29 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (AZ-104) flashcards

  1. How many fault domains and update domains can an Availability Set have by default/maximum?

    Up to 3 fault domains and up to 20 update domains (default commonly 5 update domains).

  2. What SLA does Azure provide for VMs deployed across two or more Availability Zones?

    A 99.99% uptime SLA for VMs spread across two or more Availability Zones in a region.

  3. What SLA applies to two or more VMs in the same Availability Set?

    A 99.95% uptime SLA.

  4. What SLA applies to a single-instance VM using Premium SSD or Ultra Disk for all disks?

    A 99.9% uptime SLA for a single VM with all Premium SSD/Ultra OS and data disks.

  5. What is a Virtual Machine Scale Set (VMSS)?

    A VMSS is a group of identical, load-balanced VMs that can automatically scale out (add instances) or scale in (remove instances) based on demand or a schedule, supporting high availability and elasticity.

  6. Given a scale set scaling rule, if average CPU exceeds the threshold, what action typically occurs? Express a sample autoscale condition.

    It scales out by adding instances. For example, a rule might be: if $\overline{\text{CPU}} > 70\%$ over 10 minutes, increase instance count by 1, up to the configured maximum.

  7. What are the main ways to connect to and manage an Azure VM remotely?

    RDP (port 3389) for Windows, SSH (port 22) for Linux, Azure Bastion for browser-based secure access without public IPs, and the Serial Console for OS-level troubleshooting.

  8. What is Azure Bastion and what problem does it solve?

    Azure Bastion is a managed PaaS service that provides secure RDP/SSH connectivity to VMs directly through the Azure portal over TLS, eliminating the need for public IP addresses on the VMs and reducing exposure to the internet.

  9. What is the purpose of a Network Security Group (NSG) for VM connectivity?

    An NSG contains security rules that allow or deny inbound and outbound network traffic to/from Azure resources (NICs or subnets) based on source/destination IP, port, and protocol.

  10. How are NSG rules evaluated, and what role does priority play?

    Rules are processed in order of priority (lower number = higher priority, range 100-4096). The first matching rule is applied and evaluation stops. Default rules (lowest priority) handle traffic not matched by custom rules.

  11. What VM extension or service is used to run custom scripts/configuration after a VM is provisioned?

    The Custom Script Extension (or cloud-init for Linux) downloads and runs scripts to configure the VM post-deployment. The Desired State Configuration (DSC) extension can enforce ongoing configuration state.

  12. What is Azure Container Instances (ACI) and its primary use case?

    ACI is a serverless service to run individual containers without managing VMs or orchestrators. It is ideal for short-lived, burst, batch, or simple single-container workloads with fast startup and per-second billing.

  13. What is a container group in Azure Container Instances?

    A container group is a collection of containers scheduled on the same host machine, sharing lifecycle, network (IP and ports), and storage volumes - analogous to a Kubernetes pod.

  14. What is Azure Container Registry (ACR) used for?

    ACR is a managed, private Docker registry for storing and managing container images and OCI artifacts, integrated with Azure services for secure image deployment.

  15. What are the three service tiers (SKUs) of Azure Container Registry?

    Basic, Standard, and Premium. Premium adds features like geo-replication, private endpoints, content trust, and higher storage and throughput.

  16. Which ACR feature lets you build container images in the cloud without a local Docker daemon?

    ACR Tasks (e.g., az acr build), which can build, run, and automate image builds in Azure, including on a schedule or triggered by source/base-image updates.

  17. Which ACR tier supports geo-replication, and what does it provide?

    The Premium tier. Geo-replication keeps a single registry synchronized across multiple regions for network-close, fast image pulls and regional resilience.

  18. What is Azure Container Apps and what does it abstract away?

    Azure Container Apps is a serverless container platform built on Kubernetes and KEDA/Dapr/Envoy that runs microservices and containerized apps without requiring you to manage the underlying Kubernetes infrastructure.

  19. What scaling technology underpins Azure Container Apps, and what unique capability does it allow?

    KEDA (Kubernetes Event-Driven Autoscaling), which allows scaling based on HTTP traffic, events, or queue depth - including scaling to zero replicas when there is no demand.

  20. In Azure Container Apps, what is a revision?

    A revision is an immutable snapshot of a container app version. New revisions are created on configuration/image changes, enabling traffic splitting, blue-green deployments, and rollback.

  21. How does Azure Container Apps support traffic splitting between revisions?

    By assigning percentage weights to active revisions (e.g., 80% to one revision and 20% to another), enabling A/B testing and gradual blue-green rollouts.

  22. What is Azure App Service?

    Azure App Service is a fully managed PaaS for building, hosting, and scaling web apps, REST APIs, and mobile backends in multiple languages, without managing the underlying infrastructure.

  23. What is an App Service Plan and what does it define?

    An App Service Plan defines the compute resources (region, VM size/SKU, instance count, and pricing tier) on which one or more App Service apps run. All apps in the same plan share its resources.

  24. Name the main App Service Plan pricing tiers from lowest to highest capability.

    Free and Shared (no SLA, shared infra), Basic, Standard, Premium (PremiumV2/V3), and Isolated (App Service Environment for network isolation and highest scale).

  25. What is a deployment slot in Azure App Service and what is its key benefit?

    A deployment slot is a live app with its own hostname running in the same plan (e.g., a staging slot). You can deploy and warm up to staging, then swap with production for zero-downtime releases and easy rollback.

  26. What happens during an App Service slot swap?

    The configuration and content of the source and target slots are exchanged. Slot-specific (sticky) settings stay with the slot, and the swapped-in instances are pre-warmed to achieve zero downtime.

  27. What are the two scaling options in Azure App Service, and how do they differ?

    Scale up changes the pricing tier/VM size for more resources per instance (vertical). Scale out increases the number of instances running the app (horizontal), optionally via autoscale rules.

  28. Compare ACI, Azure Container Apps, and AKS in terms of management overhead and use case.

    ACI: simplest, single/burst containers, no orchestration. Container Apps: serverless microservices with built-in autoscaling (KEDA/Dapr), no cluster management. AKS: full managed Kubernetes giving maximum control and configurability but the most operational overhead.

  29. What is the difference between a spot (low-priority) VM and a regular pay-as-you-go VM?

    Spot VMs use Azure's spare capacity at a large discount but can be evicted with little notice when capacity is needed, making them suitable for interruptible, fault-tolerant workloads, not for high-availability production VMs.

Microsoft Azure Certifications (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-900) Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (AZ-104) FAQ

What is in the Microsoft Azure Certifications (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-900) Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (AZ-104) syllabus?

Microsoft Azure Certifications (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-900) Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (AZ-104) is split into 3 chapters: Automated Deployment with Templates, Virtual Machine Management and Containers and App Service. Together they contain 9 topics and 20 sub-topics.

How many chapters are in Microsoft Azure Certifications (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-900) Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (AZ-104)?

3 chapters, containing 9 topics and 20 sub-topics. The largest chapter is Automated Deployment with Templates, with 3 topics.

Are there flashcards for Microsoft Azure Certifications (e.g. AZ-104, AZ-900) Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (AZ-104)?

Yes — a 49-card Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (AZ-104) deck, printed in full in the flashcards section of this page and available in the Examius app with spaced repetition. The free plan covers one exam of your choice, including its flashcards; Examius Pro, a one-time purchase, unlocks every other exam and deck.