AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Questions and Answers

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-files?tabs=backup-center

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-vms-first-look-arm#back-up-from-azure-vm-settings

IdFix is used to perform discovery and remediation of identity objects and their attributes in an on-premises Active Directory environment in preparation for migration to Azure Active Directory. IdFix is intended for the Active Directory administrators responsible for directory synchronization with Azure Active Directory.

Scenario: Active Directory Issue

Several users in humongousinsurance.com have UPNs that contain special characters.

You suspect that some of the characters are unsupported in Azure AD.

References: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36832

Change the Service administrator for an Azure subscription

Sign in to Account Center as the Account administrator.

Select a subscription.

On the right side, select Edit subscription details.

Scenario: Designate a new user named Admin1 as the service administrator of the Azure subscription.

References: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/billing/billing-add-change-azure-subscription-administrator

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/network-watcher/network-watcher-ip-flow-verify-overview

IP flow verify checks if a packet is allowed or denied to or from a virtual machine. The information consists of direction, protocol, local IP, remote IP, local port, and a remote port. If the packet is denied by a security group, the name of the rule that denied the packet is returned. While any source or destination IP can be chosen, IP flow verify helps administrators quickly diagnose connectivity issues from or to the internet and from or to the on-premises environment.

The Owner role is a very high-level role that grants full access to manage all resources in the scope, including the ability to assign roles to other users. This role does not follow the principle of least privilege, which means that you should only grant the minimum level of access required to accomplish the goal.

To enable Traffic Analytics for an Azure subscription, you need to have a role that grants you the following permissions at the subscription level:

Microsoft.Network/applicationGateways/read

Microsoft.Network/connections/read

Microsoft.Network/loadBalancers/read

Microsoft.Network/localNetworkGateways/read

Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/read

Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups/read

Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses/read

Microsoft.Network/routeTables/read

Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworkGateways/read

Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/read

Microsoft.OperationalInsights/workspaces/*

Some of the built-in roles that have these permissions are Owner, Contributor, or Network Contributor1. However, these roles also grant other permissions that may not be necessary or desirable for enabling Traffic Analytics. Therefore, the best practice is to use the principle of least privilege and create a custom role that only has the required permissions for enabling Traffic Analytics2.

Therefore, to meet the goal of ensuring that an Azure AD user named Admin1 is assigned the required role to enable Traffic Analytics for an Azure subscription, you should create a custom role with the required permissions and assign it to Admin1 at the subscription level.

To use Traffic Analytics in Azure Network Watcher, you need to create a Log Analytics workspace and a storage account. A Log Analytics workspace is a cloud-based repository that collects and stores data from various sources, such as NSG flow logs. A storage account is a container that provides a unique namespace to store and access your data objects in Azure Storage. You need to enable NSG flow logs and configure them to send data to both the Log Analytics workspace and the storage account. Traffic Analytics analyzes the NSG flow logs and provides insights into traffic flow in your Azure cloud.

References:

Traffic analytics - Azure Network Watcher | Microsoft Learn

Traffic analytics FAQ - Azure Network Watcher | Microsoft Learn

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/extensions/dsc-overview

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machine-scale-sets/tutorial-install-apps-template

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/samples/mspnp/samples/azure-well-architected-framework-sample-state-configuration

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/framework/devops/automation-configuration

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/external-identities/tutorial-bulk-invite?source=recommendations

- Use "Bulk invite users" to prepare a comma-separated value (.csv) file with the user information and invitation preferences

- Upload the .csv file to Azure AD

- Verify the users were added to the directory

Technically, The finance department needs to migrate their users from AD to AAD using AADC based on the finance OU, and need to enforce MFA use. This is conditional access policy. Employees also often get promotions and/or join other departments and when that occurs, the user's OU attribute will change when the admin puts the user in a new OU, and the dynamic group conditional access exception (OU= [Department Name Value]) will move the user to the appropriate dynamic group on next AADC delta sync.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/enterprise-users/groups-dynamic-membership

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/conditional-access/overview

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/howto-mfa-userstates

Box 1: Selected

Only selected users should be able to join devices

Box 2: Yes

Require Multi-Factor Auth to join devices.

From scenario:

Ensure that only users who are part of a group named Pilot can join devices to Azure AD

Ensure that when users join devices to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), the users use a mobile phone to verify their identity.

Statement 1: Yes

Contoso is moving the existing product blueprint files to Azure Blob storage which will ensure that the blueprint files are stored in the archive storage tier.

Use unmanaged standard storage for the hard disks of the virtual machines. We use Page Blobs for these.

Statement 2: No

Azure Table storage stores large amounts of structured data. The service is a NoSQL datastore which accepts authenticated calls from inside and outside the Azure cloud. Azure tables are ideal for storing structured, non-relational data. Common uses of Table storage include:

1. Storing TBs of structured data capable of serving web scale applications

2. Storing datasets that don't require complex joins, foreign keys, or stored procedures and can be denormalized for fast access

3. Quickly querying data using a clustered index

4. Accessing data using the OData protocol and LINQ queries with WCF Data Service .NET Libraries

Statement 3: No

File Storage can be used if your business use case needs to deal mostly with standard File extensions like *.docx, *.png and *.bak then you should probably go with this storage option.

As App1 is public-facing we need an incoming security rule, related to the access of the web servers.

Scenario: You have a public-facing application named App1. App1 is comprised of the following three tiers: a SQL database, a web front end, and a processing middle tier.

Each tier is comprised of five virtual machines. Users access the web front end by using HTTPS only.

Azure Storage Explorer is a free tool from Microsoft that allows you to work with Azure Storage data on Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can use it to upload and download data from Azure blob storage.

Scenario:

Planned Changes include: move the existing product blueprint files to Azure Blob storage.

Technical Requirements include: Copy the blueprint files to Azure over the Internet.

References: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/team-data-science-process/move-data-to-azure-blob-using-azure-storage-explorer

This reference architecture shows how to deploy VMs and a virtual network configured for an N-tier application, using SQL Server on Windows for the data tier.

Scenario: You have a public-facing application named App1. App1 is comprised of the following three tiers:

A SQL database

A web front end

A processing middle tier

Each tier is comprised of five virtual machines. Users access the web front end by using HTTPS only.

Technical requirements include:

Move all the virtual machines for App1 to Azure.

Minimize the number of open ports between the App1 tiers.

References: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/reference-architectures/n-tier/n-tier-sql-server

A Recovery Services vault is a logical container that stores the backup data for each protected resource, such as Azure VMs. When the backup job for a protected resource runs, it creates a recovery point inside the Recovery Services vault.

Scenario:

There are three application tiers, each with five virtual machines.

Move all the virtual machines for App1 to Azure.

Ensure that all the virtual machines for App1 are protected by backups.

References: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/quick-backup-vm-portal

Every Azure AD directory comes with an initial domain name in the form of domainname.onmicrosoft.com.

The initial domain name cannot be changed or deleted, but you can add your corporate domain name to Azure AD as well. For example, your organization probably has other domain names used to do business and users who sign in using your corporate domain name. Adding custom domain names to Azure AD allows you to assign user names in the directory that are familiar to your users, such as ‘alice@contoso.com.’ instead of 'alice@domain name.onmicrosoft.com'.

Scenario:

Network Infrastructure: Each office has a local data center that contains all the servers for that office. Each office has a dedicated connection to the Internet.

Humongous Insurance has a single-domain Active Directory forest named humongousinsurance.com

Planned Azure AD Infrastructure: The on-premises Active Directory domain will be synchronized to Azure AD.

References:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/add-custom-domain

You can opt in and configure additional recipients to receive your Azure invoice in an email. This feature may not be available for certain subscriptions such as support offers, Enterprise Agreements, or Azure in Open.

Select your subscription from the Subscriptions page. Opt-in for each subscription you own. Click Invoices then Email my invoice.

Click Opt in and accept the terms.

Scenario: During the testing phase, auditors in the finance department must be able to review all Azure costs from the past week.

References: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/billing/billing-download-azure-invoice-daily-usage-date

Scenario: Create a workflow to send an email message when the settings of VM4 are modified.

You can start an automated logic app workflow when specific events happen in Azure resources or third-party resources. These resources can publish those events to an Azure event grid. In turn, the event grid pushes those events to subscribers that have queues, webhooks, or event hubs as endpoints. As a subscriber, your logic app can wait for those events from the event grid before running automated workflows to perform tasks - without you writing any code.

References:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/event-grid/monitor-virtual-machine-changes-event-grid-logic-app

Box 1: Create a Recovery Services vault

Create a Recovery Services vault on the Azure Portal.

Box 2: Install the Azure Site Recovery Provider

Azure Site Recovery can be used to manage migration of on-premises machines to Azure.

Scenario: Migrate the virtual machines hosted on Server1 and Server2 to Azure.

Server2 has the Hyper-V host role.

References:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/migrate-tutorial-on-premises-azure

Box 1: Create a virtual network gateway and a local network gateway.

Azure VPN gateway. The VPN gateway service enables you to connect the VNet to the on-premises network through a VPN appliance. For more information, see Connect an on-premises network to a Microsoft Azure virtual network. The VPN gateway includes the following elements:

Virtual network gateway. A resource that provides a virtual VPN appliance for the VNet. It is responsible for routing traffic from the on-premises network to the VNet.

Local network gateway. An abstraction of the on-premises VPN appliance. Network traffic from the cloud application to the on-premises network is routed through this gateway.

Connection. The connection has properties that specify the connection type (IPSec) and the key shared with the on-premises VPN appliance to encrypt traffic.

Gateway subnet. The virtual network gateway is held in its own subnet, which is subject to various requirements, described in the Recommendations section below.

Box 2: Configure a site-to-site VPN connection

On premises create a site-to-site connection for the virtual network gateway and the local network gateway.

Scenario: Connect the New York office to VNet1 over the Internet by using an encrypted connection.

Scenario: Litware must meet technical requirements including:

Ensure that VM3 can establish outbound connections over TCP port 8080 to the applications servers in the Montreal office.

IP flow verify checks if a packet is allowed or denied to or from a virtual machine. The information consists of direction, protocol, local IP, remote IP, local port, and remote port. If the packet is denied by a security group, the name of the rule that denied the packet is returned. While any source or destination IP can be chosen, IP flow verify helps administrators quickly diagnose connectivity issues from or to the internet and from or to the on-premises environment.

References:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/network-watcher/network-watcher-ip-flow-verify-overview

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/role-based-access-control/tutorial-custom-role-powershell

Get-AzRoleDefinition -Name "Reader" | ConvertTo-Json

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/az.resources/get-azroledefinition?view=azps-5.9.0

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/role-based-access-control/tutorial-custom-role-powershell

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/convertto-json?view=powershell-7.1

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/azuread/get-azureaddirectoryrole?view=azureadps-2.0

Cost analysis: Correct Option

In cost analysis blade of Azure, you can see all the detail for custom time span. You can use this to determine expenditure of last few day, weeks, and month. Below options are available in Cost analysis blade for filtering information by time span:  last 7 days, last 30 days, and custom date range. Choosing the first option (last 7 days) auditors can view the costs by time span.

Cost analysis shows data for the current month by default. Use the date selector to switch to common date ranges quickly. Examples include the last seven days, the last month, the current year, or a custom date range. Pay-as-you-go subscriptions also include date ranges based on your billing period, which isn't bound to the calendar month, like the current billing period or last invoice. Use the  links at the top of the menu to jump to the previous or next period, respectively. For example, 

Invoice: Incorrect Option

Invoices can only be used for past billing periods not for current billing period, i.e. if your requirement is to know the last week's cost then that also not filled by invoices because Azure  generates invoice at the end of the month. Even though Invoices have custom timespan, but when you put in dates for a week, the pane would be empty. Below is from Microsoft document:

Resource Provider: Incorrect Option

When deploying resources, you frequently need to retrieve information about the resource providers and types. For example, if you want to store keys and secrets, you work with the Microsoft.KeyVault resource provider. This resource provider offers a resource type called vaults for creating the key vault. This is not useful for reviewing all Azure costs from the past week which is required for audit.

Payment method: Incorrect Option

Payment methods is not useful for reviewing all Azure costs from the past week which is required for audit.

Explanation

Scenario:

1. Web administrators will deploy Azure web apps for the marketing department.

2. Each web app will be added to a separate resource group.

3. The initial configuration of the web apps will be identical.

4. The web administrators have permission to deploy web apps to resource groups.

Steps:

1 --> Create a resource group, and then deploy a web app to the resource group.

2 --> From the Automation script blade of the resource group , click Add to Library.

3 --> From the Templates service, select the template, and then share the template to the web administrators .

References:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/templates/quickstart-create-templates-use-the-portal

Active Directory Federation Services is a feature and web service in the Windows Server Operating System that allows sharing of identity information outside a company’s network.

Scenario: Technical Requirements include:

Prevent user passwords or hashes of passwords from being stored in Azure.

References: https://www.sherweb.com/blog/active-directory-federation-services/

Every Azure AD directory comes with an initial domain name in the form of domainname.onmicrosoft.com. The initial domain name cannot be changed or deleted, but you can add your corporate domain name to Azure AD as well. For example, your organization probably has other domain names used to do business and users who sign in using your corporate domain name. Adding custom domain names to Azure AD allows you to assign user names in the directory that are familiar to your users, such as ‘alice@contoso.com.’ instead of 'alice@domain name.onmicrosoft.com'.

Scenario:

Network Infrastructure: Each office has a local data center that contains all the servers for that office. Each office has a dedicated connection to the Internet.

Humongous Insurance has a single-domain Active Directory forest named humongousinsurance.com

Planned Azure AD Infrastructure: The on-premises Active Directory domain will be synchronized to Azure AD.

References: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/add-custom-domain

Once the VNets are peered, all resources on one VNet can communicate with resources on the other peered VNets. You plan to enable peering between Paris-VNet and AllOffices-VNet. Therefore VMs on Subnet1, which is on Paris-VNet and VMs on Subnet3, which is on AllOffices-VNet will be able to connect to each other.

All Azure resources connected to a VNet have outbound connectivity to the Internet by default. Therefore VMs on ClientSubnet, which is on ClientResources-VNet will have access to the Internet; and VMs on Subnet3 and Subnet4, which are on AllOffices-VNet will have access to the Internet.

Scenario: Licensing Issue

1. You attempt to assign a license in Azure to several users and receive the following error message: "Licenses not assigned. License agreement failed for one user."

2. You verify that the Azure subscription has the available licenses.

Solution:

License cannot be assigned to a user without a usage location specified.

Some Microsoft services aren't available in all locations because of local laws and regulations. Before you can assign a license to a user, you must specify the Usage location property for the user. You can specify the location under the User > Profile > Settings section in the Azure portal.

B: You can gradually roll out Seamless SSO to your users. You start by adding the following Azure AD URL to all or selected users' Intranet zone settings by using Group Policy in Active Directory: https://autologon.microsoftazuread-sso.com

E: Seamless SSO works with any method of cloud authentication - Password Hash Synchronization or Pass-through Authentication, and can be enabled via Azure AD Connect.

References:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-connect-sso-quick-start

Before creating a network interface, you must have an existing virtual network in the same location and subscription you create a network interface in.

If you try to create a NIC on a location that does not have any Vnets you will get the following error: "The currently selected subscription and location lack any existing virtual networks. Create a virtual network first."

Moving the virtual machine to a different resource group does not change the host that the virtual machine runs on. It only changes the logical grouping of the resources. To move the virtual machine to a different host, you need to redeploy it or use Azure Site Recovery. Then, References: [Move resources to new resource group or subscription] [Redeploy Windows VM to new Azure node] [Use Azure Site Recovery to migrate Azure VMs between Azure regions]

Per the MS documentation, private endpoint seems to be the proper choice: "You can use private endpoints for your Azure Storage accounts to allow clients on a virtual network (VNet) to securely access data over a Private Link. The private endpoint uses a separate IP address from the VNet address space for each storage account service. Network traffic between the clients on the VNet and the storage account traverses over the VNet and a private link on the Microsoft backbone network, eliminating exposure from the public internet." Link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-private-endpoints

Users = User1, User2, User3, User4 (can delete all users whether a license is assigned directly or via inheritance from a group membership) Groups = Group 2 and Group 4 (Groups with active license assignments cannot be deleted. You get an error)

Azure Bastion is a service that provides secure and seamless RDP and SSH access to virtual machines directly from the Azure portal, without exposing them to the public internet1. To use Azure Bastion, you need to deploy it in the same virtual network as the virtual machines you want to connect to2.

According to the tables, you deployed an Azure Bastion host named Bastion1 to VNet1. Therefore, you can connect through Bastion1 to any virtual machine that is in VNet1 or a virtual network that is peered with VNet1. VM1 and VM3 are both in VNet1, so you can connect to them through Bastion1. VM2 is in VNet2, which is not peered with VNet1, so you cannot connect to it through Bastion1.