Author: Tiago Costa

Microsoft Learning just announced changes in the Azure Administrator Associate Certification. In resume the Azure Administrator Associate certification has been modified and now you only need to pass in one exam: AZ-103: Microsoft Azure Administrator.

This change will be live starting May 1, 2019. This new exam combines skills from AZ-100 and AZ-101, but basically is all AZ-100 plus some topcis that come from AZ-101. You can find the topics that are coming from AZ-101 at the full object domain in yellow.

Some points to understand with this change:

• If you already have the AZ-100 exam, you will get the Azure Administrator Associate certificate.
• AZ-100 and AZ-101 will be retired on the May 1, 2019
• Official Instructor Led and Online Training will be available on May 1, 2019.
• If you had taken the AZ-101 (with a pass or fail score) you don’t get the Azure Administrator Associate certificate, but you will get the Microsoft Exam voucher.

If you have any questions, please do it on the comments section. I will answer to everyone questions on this.

You can also find more information in the official Microsoft Learning blog post: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/community-blog-post.aspx?BlogId=8&Id=375217

AZ-103: Microsoft Azure Administrator exam object domain

1. Manage Azure subscriptions and resources (15-20%)

1.1 Manage Azure subscriptions

May include but not limited to: Assign administrator permissions; configure cost center quotas and tagging; configure Azure subscription policies at Azure subscription level

1.2 Analyze resource utilization and consumption

May include but not limited to: Configure diagnostic settings on resources; create baseline for resources; create and rest alerts; analyze alerts across subscription; analyze metrics across subscription; create action groups; monitor for unused resources; monitor spend; report on spend; utilize Log Search query functions; view alerts in Log Analytics

1.3 Manage resource groups

May include but not limited to: Use Azure policies for resource groups; configure resource locks; configure resource policies; implement and set tagging on resource groups; move resources across resource groups; remove resource groups 1.4 Managed role based access control (RBAC) May include but is not limited to: Create a custom role, configure access to Azure resources by assigning roles, configure management access to Azure, troubleshoot RBAC, implement RBAC policies, assign RBAC Roles

2. Implement and manage storage (20-25%)

2.1 Create and configure storage accounts

May include but not limited to: Configure network access to the storage account; create and configure storage account; generate shared access signature; install and use Azure Storage Explorer; manage access keys; monitor activity log by using Log Analytics; implement Azure storage replication

2.2 Import and export data to Azure

May include but not limited to: Create export from Azure job; create import into Azure job; Use Azure Data Box; configure and use Azure blob storage; configure Azure content delivery network (CDN) endpoints

2.3 Configure Azure files

May include but not limited to: Create Azure file share; create Azure File Sync service; create Azure sync group; troubleshoot Azure File Sync

2.4 Implement Azure backup

May include but not limited to: Configure and review backup reports; perform backup operation; create Recovery Services Vault; create and configure backup policy; perform a restore operation

3. Deploy and manage virtual machines (VMs) (20-25%)

3.1 Create and configure a VM for Windows and Linux

May include but not limited to: Configure high availability; configure monitoring, networking, storage, and virtual machine size; deploy and configure scale sets

3.2 Automate deployment of VMs

May include but not limited to: Modify Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template; configure location of new VMs; configure VHD template; deploy from template; save a deployment as an ARM template; deploy Windows and Linux VMs

3.3 Manage Azure VM

May include but not limited to: Add data discs; add network interfaces; automate configuration management by using PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) and VM Agent by using custom script extensions; manage VM sizes; move VMs from one resource group to another; redeploy VMs

3.4 Manage VM backups

May include but not limited to: Configure VM backup; define backup policies; implement backup policies; perform VM restore; Azure Site Recovery

4. Configure and manage virtual networks (20-25%)

4.1 Create connectivity between virtual networks

May include but not limited to: Create and configure VNET peering; create and configure VNET to VNET; verify virtual network connectivity; create virtual network gateway

4.2 Implement and manage virtual networking

May include but not limited to: Configure private and public IP addresses, network routes, network interface, subnets, and virtual network

4.3 Configure name resolution

May include but not limited to: Configure Azure DNS; configure custom DNS settings; configure private and public DNS zones

4.4 Create and configure a Network Security Group (NSG)

May include but not limited to: Create security rules; associate NSG to a subnet or network interface; identify required ports; evaluate effective security rules

4.5 Implement Azure load balancer

May include but is not limited to: Configure internal load balancer, configure load balancing rules, configure public load balancer, troubleshoot load balancing

4.6 Monitor and troubleshoot virtual networking

May include but is not limited to: Monitor on-premises connectivity, use Network resource monitoring, use Network Watcher, troubleshoot external networking, troubleshoot virtual network connectivity

4.7 Integrate on premises network with Azure virtual network

May include but is not limited to: Create and configure Azure VPN Gateway, create and configure site to site VPN, configure Express Route, verify on premises connectivity, troubleshoot on premises connectivity with Azure

5. Manage identities (15-20%)

5.1 Manage Azure Active Directory (AD)

May include but not limited to: Add custom domains; Azure AD Join; configure self-service password reset; manage multiple directories;

5.2 Manage Azure AD objects (users, groups, and devices)

May include but not limited to: Create users and groups; manage user and group properties; manage device settings; perform bulk user updates; manage guest accounts

5.3 Implement and manage hybrid identities

May include but not limited to: Install Azure AD Connect, including password hash and passthrough synchronization; use Azure AD Connect to configure federation with on-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS); manage Azure AD Connect; manage password sync and password writeback

5.4 Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA)

May include but is not limited to: Configure user accounts for MFA, enable MFA by using bulk update, configure fraud alerts, configure bypass options, configure Trusted IPs, configure verification methods

Microsoft just announced the public preview of Logic Apps Integration Service Environment.

This new service is a fully isolated and dedicated environment for all enterprise-scale integration needs. When you create a new Integration Service Environment (ISE), it is created into your Azure Virtual Network, which allows you to deploy Logic Apps as a service on you VNET. This enables your logic apps to have direct access to resources over Site-to-site or ExpressRoute connections.

You will get some of the following features:

Direct, secure access to your virtual network resources
Enables Logic Apps to have secure, direct access to private resources, such as virtual machines, servers, and other services in your virtual network including Azure services with service endpoints and on-premises resources via an Express Route or site to site VPN.

Consistent, highly reliable performance
Eliminates the noisy neighbor issue, removing fear of intermittent slowdowns that can impact business critical processes with a dedicated runtime where only your Logic Apps execute in.

Isolated, private storage
Sensitive data subject to regulation is kept private and secure, opening new integration opportunities.

Predicable pricing
Provides a fixed monthly cost for Logic Apps. Each Integration Service Environment includes the free usage of 1 Standard Integration Account and 1 Enterprise connector. If your Logic Apps action execution count exceeds 50 million action executions per month, the Integration Service Environment could provide better value.

 

You can read more about Azure Logic Apps Integration Service Environment (ISE) at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/logic-apps/connect-virtual-network-vnet-isolated-environment

Has many of you know Lisbon has been lately attracting a lot of IT Companies and the Startup sector had an amazing boom in the past years. We also have great events like Web Summit, but we needed an event with content targeted at IT Professionals, so on the 29 and 30 January 2019 it will take place “Building the Future”.

During the Building the Future we are going to have several initiatives like:

• Building the Strategy: A track for IT professionals that need to help the company with your IT Strategy. How technology will impact your market? Are you ready? Not Sure? You should attend this track!!!
• Building the Foundations: Real world experience on how existing technology can help you company today.
• Building the Code: 2 tracks in parallel! There are so great topics like DevOps, Infrastructure as code, Serveless, Containers, ML, Big Data, AI, IOT, Bots, Cognitive Services, … All this will be on those 2 tracks!
• Building the Lab: Hands-on labs with great names of the industry. It’s your chance to try hands-on a product during the lab with support of a great professional.
• Hackathon: Toghether with Farfetch there will be a great hackathon to build the revolution of the fashion industry. Do you have ideas on how the industry should be in the upcoming years? SignUp Now for this!!!
• Intelligent Day: You’ll be able to experience the future and let’s try to predict how technology can change your life’s.
• Startup World: Were the entire Portuguese entrepreneurial ecosystem can meet for meaningful interactions.

Together with great names from the industry (https://www.buildingthefuture.pt/speakers), I will talk about how companies should think Infrastructure in Microsoft Azure and how ARM templates and Azure DevOps can help then in this tasks. Attend my sessions, amazing content will be presented in a demo-dependent session and with amazing gifts!

 

Get here all the details of the event:

Building the Future
Date: 29^th and 30^th January, 2019
Location: Pavilhão Carlos Lopes
https://www.buildingthefuture.pt

Let’s build the future toghether? Hope to see you during the conference!

Now it’s time to look back and evaluate the year that is ending. 2018 has been amazing! I had the chance to focus a lot on Microsoft Azure project both in the Consulting and Training worlds. I delivered my services in a record number of countries, making me do a lot of flights, 104 flights to be more precise, and yes, I track and log all the flights that I do , all this in 4 different continents!

Just some bullet points of my achievements in 2018:

• 2 Microsoft Oficial Courses (MOC 20532D and 20535A) that I co-authored were released
• Did a lot of community work, like speaking in several events and co-organized 4 major IT conferences. But all this seems so little…
• Delivered hundreds of hours of training
• Helped certify more than 350 professionals on Microsoft Azure
• Helped several companies onboarding into the Microsoft Cloud
• Moved on-prem workloads to Microsoft Azure
• Helping the leadership of a large Cloud project. The biggest budget ever in my career, spanning across 4 years and dozens of millions of Euros.
• Modernizing IaaS applications to PaaS and SaaS Azure Services
• Spoke on several amazing events worldwide and had the privilege to speak for the first time on Microsoft Ignite!

For the last few years I had the opportunity to travel across the world, 2019 is just around the corner and I already have several trips scheduled. I will be in a few days in the United States for some cool work (NDA for now…), but I will be in the LA area. Let’s get together if you’re nearby!!! I have amazing community and professional projects to launch in 2019, it will be an amazing and challenging year.

During 2019 I wish to keep pushing Microsoft Azure to more and more customers and IT Professionals!

Let’s keep changing the world one IT Professional, one customer at a time! I’m here, and I’m ready for 2019!!!

This year I have the honor to speak at ESPC18. This conference used to be focused on SharePoint, but with the evolving of all the ecosystem around it, now it’s also about Office 365 and Microsoft Azure.

I will deliver a workshop (already sold out!) and a regular session. You can fin the full schedule at https://www.sharepointeurope.com/conference/schedule/

You can find me at the following sessions:

• Workshop: What Every Developer Needs to Know to Work with Microsoft Azure – Monday 26 November, 9AM to 5PM
• Session: Creating a Rocking Global Web Application with Microsoft Azure PaaS Services – Wednesday 28 November, 9AM to 10AM.

What Every Developer Needs to Know to Work with Microsoft Azure

In this workshop I will talk about the core Microsoft Azure skills that every modern developer needs to have, then we will check some of the main services for Microsoft Azure like: App Services, SQL Database, Azure AD and Storage. We will also check how to create CI/CD pipelines to deploy applications to Microsoft Azure.

Creating a Rocking Global Web Application with Microsoft Azure PaaS Services

In this session, we will check how Azure App Service can help us reach a global application goal and how other related services, like Traffic Manager, Azure Storage, SQL Databases and Service Bus can help you. Expect a heavy-demo depended session, based on real-world experience in implementing these services with several customers.

So, with this I leave you a 5 Step guide to ESPC18

1. PLAN YOUR SESSIONS

Explore the ESPC18 schedule to identify what sessions you’d like to attend. Create your own schedule suited to you. If you are travelling with colleagues, divide and conquer by attending different sessions. Afterwards swap notes to increase your learning.

Don’t have time to delve through our 120+ conference schedule? We have created dedicated pages to save you time. Check out the ESPC conference schedule based on IT PRO, DEV, BDM, AZURE or MICROSOFT SESSIONS.

2. CONNECT WITH YOUR PEERS

Join the ESPC18 App (Login details announced in the coming weeks) & follow the hashtag #ESPC18 to find out whose attending. Why not make your presence known by sending out a tweet introducing yourself? Arrange to meet new individuals at ESPC – you never know what you might discover! Helpful tip: Carry some business cards with you to share with the new people you meet.

3. LEARN, LEARN, LEARN

Before arriving at ESPC, take some time to identify what questions you want answered. Prepare them advance to ask during a session Q&A. Why not take a break from sessions and advance your skills at the ESPC labs or check out the Ask the Experts session? Remember, it’s good practice to note three important key takeaways from each session.

4. HAVE FUN

With 2,000 delegates expected to attend, ESPC offers a host of exciting day and night experiences. Check out the WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY LUNCH, a jam-packed EXPO HALL or challenge other delegates and the ESPC team to some fun games in the Community Area.

Not enough? Be sure to join the EXPO drinks on Tuesday evening or enjoy a magical night at the sell-out ESPC18 PARTY: A NIGHT AT THE CIRCUS.

5. SHARE WITH YOUR TEAM

Schedule a meeting post conference to share your key learnings with your fellow co-workers. Impress colleagues with your advanced knowledge while maximizing value for your company. Share your inspiration and make plans to implement what you learned.

Still undecided about attending the leading European SharePoint, Office 365 & Azure Conference? Visit 10 reasons to attend ESPC18 to see why you need to be there.

BOOK YOUR TICKET today and use coupon code ESPC18SPK to receive a €100 discount. Hope to see you there!!!