Architecture and Services (35%-40%)

Question 1

What are Azure regions, and what are region pairs?

Answer 1

• Regions are geographical areas with multiple datacenters connected by low-latency networks.
• Region pairs are two regions within the same geography, at least 300 miles apart, providing redundancy and disaster recovery.

Describe Azure regions, region pairs, and sovereign regions.

Question 2

What are Azure sovereign regions, and why are they used?

Answer 2

Sovereign regions, like US Gov and China Azure, are isolated Azure instances for compliance and legal requirements.
These regions are operated under specific jurisdictional controls.

Describe Azure regions, region pairs, and sovereign regions.

Question 3

What are Azure availability zones?

Answer 3

Availability zones are physically separate datacenters within a region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking, ensuring high availability and resiliency against failures.

Describe availability zones.

Question 4

What is the role of Azure datacenters?

Answer 4

Datacenters house physical resources like servers, cooling, and networking. Azure organizes datacenters into regions and availability zones to ensure performance, reliability, and scalability.

Describe Azure datacenters.

Question 5

What are Azure resources and resource groups?

Answer 5

Resources are the basic building blocks of Azure (e.g., VMs, Storage account, databases).
Resource groups organize resources for easy management; actions on a group apply to all its resources.

Resource - An Azure service you have access to

Describe Azure resources and resource groups.

Question 6

What are Azure subscriptions, and how are they used?

Answer 6

Subscriptions manage Azure services, resources, and billing. They act as boundaries for billing and access control, allowing separate environments for development, production, or departments.

Describe subscriptions.

Question 7

What are Azure management groups, and why are they useful?

Answer 7

Management groups are containers for organizing multiple subscriptions. They enable unified policy, governance, and access management across subscriptions.

Describe management groups.

Question 8

What is the hierarchy of Azure resource groups, subscriptions, and management groups?

Answer 8

Resources belong to resource groups, which are contained in subscriptions.
Subscriptions are organized under management groups for enterprise-scale governance.

Top - Management Groups > Subscriptions > Resource Groups > Resources

Describe the hierarchy of resource groups, subscriptions, and management groups.

Question 9

Azure Compute Types

Answer 9

• Virtual Machines (VM)
• VM Scale Sets (VMSS)
• App services (Web Apps)
• Azure Container Instances (ACI)
• Azure Container Apps
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Azure Virutal Desktop

Question 10

What are Azure Virtual Machines, and what are their common use cases?

Answer 10

Azure VMs provide full control over OS and software.
Use cases include testing, running cloud applications, disaster recovery, and extending on-premises datacenters.

Describe virtual machine options, including Azure virtual machines, Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets, availability sets, and Azure Virtual Desktop.

Question 11

What are Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets, and how do they work?

Answer 11

Scale sets manage a group of identical, load-balanced VMs. They auto-scale based on demand, deploy load balancers, and ensure efficient resource use.

Two or more virtual machines running the exact same code

Describe virtual machine options, including Azure virtual machines, Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets, availability sets, and Azure Virtual Desktop.

Question 12

What are availability sets, and how do they enhance resiliency?

Answer 12

Availability sets use fault domains (separate power/network sources) and update domains (staggered reboots) to ensure uptime during failures or maintenance.

Multiple VMs with identical function using fault+update domains

Describe virtual machine options, including Azure virtual machines, Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets, availability sets, and Azure Virtual Desktop.

Question 13

What is Azure Virtual Desktop, and what are its benefits?

Answer 13

Azure Virtual Desktop offers cloud-hosted Windows desktops, enabling centralized security, role-based access control, and multi-session support.

Describe virtual machine options, including Azure virtual machines, Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets, availability sets, and Azure Virtual Desktop.

Question 14

What is Azure App Service, and what application hosting styles does it

Answer 14

Azure App Service hosts web apps (PaaS), API apps, mobile back ends, and WebJobs with features like auto-scaling, high availability, and support for multiple languages.

Describe application hosting options, including web apps, containers, and virtual machines.

Question 15

What are the differences between containers, virtual machines, and functions?

Answer 15

• Virtual Machines: Full OS and hardware emulation; customizable but resource-intensive.
• Containers: Lightweight, share OS, and scale quickly; ideal for microservices.
• Functions: Event-driven, serverless, and auto-scale; pay only for execution time.

Compare compute types, including containers, virtual machines, and functions.

Question 16

What is the purpose of Azure virtual networks (VNets)?

Answer 16

Azure virtual networks enable secure communication between Azure resources, the internet, and on-premises networks, acting as an extension of your on-premises network.

Describe virtual networking, including the purpose of Azure virtual networks, Azure virtual subnets, peering, Azure DNS, Azure VPN Gateway, and ExpressRoute

Question 17

What are Azure subnets, and why are they used?

Answer 17

Subnets divide a virtual network into smaller segments to improve organization, security, and traffic control within the VNet.

Describe virtual networking, including the purpose of Azure virtual networks, Azure virtual subnets, peering, Azure DNS, Azure VPN Gateway, and ExpressRoute

Question 18

What is VNet peering, and what is its purpose?

Answer 18

VNet peering connects two Azure VNets (connecting 2 subnets together), enabling them to communicate privately and securely over the Microsoft backbone network without using the public internet.

Describe virtual networking, including the purpose of Azure virtual networks, Azure virtual subnets, peering, Azure DNS, Azure VPN Gateway, and ExpressRoute

Question 19

What is Azure DNS, and what benefits does it provide?

Answer 19

Azure DNS is a DNS hosting service that provides reliable and scalable domain name resolution, with features like private domains, role-based access, and alias records.

DNS only applies internally to Azure to applied networks

Describe virtual networking, including the purpose of Azure virtual networks, Azure virtual subnets, peering, Azure DNS, Azure VPN Gateway, and ExpressRoute

Question 20

What is Azure VPN Gateway, and how is it used?

Answer 20

Azure VPN Gateway connects Azure VNets to on-premises networks via secure, encrypted tunnels over the public internet for site-to-site (Called VPN peering), point-to-site, or VNet-to-VNet communication.

Describe virtual networking, including the purpose of Azure virtual networks, Azure virtual subnets, peering, Azure DNS, Azure VPN Gateway, and ExpressRoute

Question 21

What is Azure ExpressRoute, and how does it differ from a VPN Gateway?

Answer 21

Azure ExpressRoute provides private, high-speed connections from your ISP to Azure without using the public internet, offering higher security, faster speeds, and consistent latencies compared to VPN Gateway.

Describe virtual networking, including the purpose of Azure virtual networks, Azure virtual subnets, peering, Azure DNS, Azure VPN Gateway, and ExpressRoute

Question 22

What is the difference between public and private endpoints in Azure?

Answer 22

Public endpoints have public IPs for global access
Private endpoints use private IPs within a VNet for secure internal communication.

Define public and private endpoints

Question 23

What is a BLOB storage?

Answer 23

Binary Large Object
* Can put file types of any types
* Stored Loosely in a container
* Unstructured data

Compare Azure storage services.

Question 24

What are the 4 Storage Tiers?

Answer 24

1. Hot: For frequently accessed, active data. (e.g., website assets).
2. Cool: For infrequently accessed data with lower storage costs for at least 30 days (e.g., invoices).
3. Cold: For infrequently accessed data stored for at least 90 days.
4. Archive: For rarely accessed data with the lowest storage costs for at least 180 days (e.g., backups).

Describe storage tiers.

Question 25

What tools can you use to **move files** to or from Azure?

Answer 25

* **AzCopy**: Command-line utility for copying files. * **Azure Storage Explorer**: GUI tool for managing Azure storage. * **Azure File Sync**: Syncs Windows file servers with Azure Files. ## Footnote Identify options for moving files, including AzCopy, Azure Storage Explorer, and Azure File Sync.

Question 26

What are the **redundancy options** for Azure storage?

Answer 26

* **LRS** ***(Locally Redundant Storage):*** Saves 3 copies of your data in one building. Good for basic protection, but if the whole building has an issue (like a fire), the data is lost. * **ZRS** ***(Zone-Redundant Storage):*** Saves 3 copies of your data in different buildings (zones) within the same region. If one building fails, your data is still safe. * **GRS** ***(Geo-Redundant Storage):*** Saves 3 copies in one building (like LRS) and also sends a copy to a faraway region. Protects against regional disasters but can only read the backup if you manually switch to it. * **GZRS** ***(Geo-Zone-Redundant Storage):*** Saves 3 copies in different buildings (like ZRS) and also sends a copy to a faraway region. Offers the best protection against zone and regional disasters. ## Footnote Describe redundancy options.

Question 27

What is **Azure Migrate**, and what does it provide?

Answer 27

**Azure Migrate** is a unified migration platform offering tools for discovery, assessment, and migration of on-premises servers, databases, and apps to Azure. ## Footnote Describe migration options, including Azure Migrate and Azure Data Box.

Question 28

What is **Azure Data Box**, and when should it be used?

Answer 28

**Azure Data Box** is a physical device for transferring large data volumes (40+ TB) to or from Azure when network connectivity is limited or unavailable. ## Footnote Describe migration options, including Azure Migrate and Azure Data Box.

Question 29

What is **Microsoft Entra ID**?

Answer 29

**Microsoft Entra ID** is a service that helps people sign in and use cloud apps securely, offering features like password resets and single sign-on. ## Footnote Describe directory services in Azure, including Microsoft Entra ID and Microsoft Entra Domain Services.

Question 30

What is **Microsoft Entra Domain Services**? | Formally known as Azure Active Directory

Answer 30

It provides tools like domain join and group policies, so you can use older apps in Azure without managing servers yourself. ## Footnote Describe directory services in Azure, including Microsoft Entra ID and Microsoft Entra Domain Services.

Question 31

What is **multifactor authentication** (MFA), and why is it important?

Answer 31

MFA adds extra security by asking for two or more proofs, like a password and a phone code ## Footnote Describe authentication methods in Azure, including single sign-on (SSO), multifactor authentication (MFA), and passwordless.

Question 32

What is **single sign-on** (SSO)

Answer 32

SSO lets you log in once and access multiple apps without needing to sign in again. ## Footnote Describe authentication methods in Azure, including single sign-on (SSO), multifactor authentication (MFA), and passwordless.

Question 33

What is the **Zero Trust** security model?

Answer 33

Zero Trust assumes no one can be trusted and checks every request for access. ## Footnote Describe the concept of Zero Trust.

Question 34

What is **Microsoft Entra Conditional Access**?

Answer 34

It lets you control access based on things like location or device, making it safer and more flexible. ## Footnote Describe Microsoft Entra Conditional Access.

Question 35

What is **Azure Role-Based Access Control** (RBAC)?

Answer 35

Azure RBAC lets you give people only the access they need to do their job. ## Footnote Describe Azure Role Based Access Control (RBAC).

Question 36

What is the purpose of the defense in depth model?

Answer 36

It adds layers of security to slow down attackers and protect your data. ## Footnote Describe the purpose of the defense in depth model.

Question 37

What is **Microsoft Defender** for Cloud?

Answer 37

It's a tool that checks for threats, helps secure resources, and gives alerts if something's wrong. ## Footnote Describe the purpose of Microsoft Defender for Cloud.

Question 38

What is **passwordless authentication**, and what are its benefits?

Answer 38

It replaces passwords with things like fingerprints or PINs, making logins safer and easier. ## Footnote Describe authentication methods in Azure, including single sign-on (SSO), multifactor authentication (MFA), and passwordless.

Question 39

What are **external identities** in Azure?

Answer 39

External identities let people outside your organization log in using their own accounts, like Google or Facebook. ## Footnote Describe external identities and guest access in Azure.