{"id":2028,"date":"2025-05-28T11:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T11:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/?p=2028"},"modified":"2026-10-21T21:34:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T21:34:02","slug":"key-distinctions-between-az-103-and-az-104-microsoft-azure-administrator-exams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/key-distinctions-between-az-103-and-az-104-microsoft-azure-administrator-exams\/","title":{"rendered":"AZ-103 vs. AZ-104: The Azure Administrator Transition"},"content":{"rendered":"

AZ-103 and AZ-104 are not two Azure Administrator exams from which candidates can still choose. AZ-103 is retired. Microsoft introduced AZ-104 as its replacement in 2020, and the AZ-104 skills outline has continued to change since then. That distinction matters to anyone using an older course, searching for an AZ-103 score report, or trying to understand why two sets of learning objectives describe much of the same administrator work in different ways.<\/p>\n

The useful comparison is historical: what AZ-103 originally assessed, what carried forward into AZ-104, and which modern operations now appear in the current blueprint. Candidates preparing today should use the current Microsoft AZ-104<\/a> exam as their reference, not treat a 2020 transition document as the exam specification.<\/p>\n

The actual transition: April to August 2020<\/h2>\n

Microsoft announced the AZ-104 beta on April 2, 2020. Its announcement identified AZ-104 as the exam replacing AZ-103 and set August 31, 2020 as the last day AZ-103 would remain in market. The two exams briefly coexisted because Microsoft allowed candidates who had already prepared for AZ-103 to finish that route during the transition. There was no permanent parallel certification track and there is no AZ-103 exam appointment available in 2026.<\/p>\n

Older articles sometimes describe March 31 or June 30, 2020 as the AZ-103 retirement date. Those are not the dates in Microsoft’s April 2 launch announcement. A planned rollout date, a beta introduction, and the end of exam availability are three different events; confusing them changes the advice a reader receives. When examining an old study guide, identify whether it discusses the announcement, an initial candidate beta period, or the actual retirement deadline.<\/p>\n

The transition also did not introduce a wholly unrelated certification. Microsoft explicitly stated in 2020 that passing either AZ-103 or AZ-104 during their respective availability periods earned Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate. The exam code changed; the associate credential remained the role-based award. Today’s Azure Administrator Associate<\/a> requirements and annual renewal process should be checked separately from the two-year validity rules described in historical Microsoft announcements.<\/p>\n

Compare the original and current objective groups<\/h2>\n

The 2019 Microsoft Press AZ-103 Exam Ref organized its material into five areas: manage Azure subscriptions and resources; implement and manage storage; deploy and manage virtual machines; configure and manage virtual networks; and manage identities. Microsoft’s AZ-104 skills measured as of April 17, 2026 also have five broad areas, but the grouping is different. This is a comparison of published subject headings across two dates, not a promise that every subtopic moved one-to-one or that the old and current exams carry identical weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
2019 AZ-103 organization<\/th>\nAZ-104 outline effective April 17, 2026<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Manage Azure subscriptions and resources; manage identities<\/td>\nManage Azure identities and governance (20\u201325%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Implement and manage storage<\/td>\nImplement and manage storage (15\u201320%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Deploy and manage virtual machines<\/td>\nDeploy and manage Azure compute resources (20\u201325%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Configure and manage virtual networks<\/td>\nImplement and manage virtual networking (15\u201320%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Administrative monitoring and backup appeared within earlier subject areas<\/td>\nMonitor and maintain Azure resources (10\u201315%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The most important difference is what this organization asks a candidate to connect. The older headings can encourage readers to study VMs as a self-contained module and identity as an isolated service. The modern outline presents more of the administrator’s end-to-end responsibilities: a deployment depends on governance, storage access depends on identity and networking, and the job is unfinished if the environment cannot be observed or recovered. The separate monitoring category signals explicit attention to operational evidence, not proof that monitoring was absent from AZ-103.<\/p>\n

Identity and governance now share a decision boundary<\/h2>\n

AZ-103 materials commonly explain Azure subscriptions, resource management and Azure Active Directory as separate headline units. Those subjects remain valuable, but the modern AZ-104 domain combines identity and governance because real access questions cross those boundaries. A user may exist in Microsoft Entra ID yet lack Azure role permissions on a resource group. A user may have a role assignment but still encounter a blocking policy or lock. An administrator has to diagnose which control is relevant rather than applying the familiar label ‘identity issue’ to every failure.<\/p>\n

Modern AZ-104 objectives explicitly name Microsoft Entra users and groups, Azure role assignments at different scopes, Azure Policy, resource locks, tags, management groups, subscriptions and cost controls. Readers of older Azure AD material should recognize that Microsoft Entra ID<\/a> is the current name for Azure Active Directory, not a second directory product that replaced the underlying identity platform overnight. Traditional Active Directory Domain Services and Azure resource RBAC also remain separate concepts; old notes often blur them because the product names sound related.<\/p>\n

Consider the difference between giving a help-desk team permission to restart VMs in one resource group and making it an Owner of the subscription. The business request is narrow. The correct role, scope and effective access need to be determined before any access is granted. A second test might ask whether the team is blocked by a delete lock or a policy assignment rather than by its role. These distinctions are more valuable preparation than memorizing individual portal menu labels that have changed since 2019.<\/p>\n

Compute extends well beyond the older VM heading<\/h2>\n

The title of the AZ-103 compute section specifically named virtual machines. That reflects a large part of an administrator’s workload at the time, and VM operations remain important in AZ-104. Candidates still need to understand disks, size selection, availability, permissions and image-based deployment. The present AZ-104 outline, however, also covers Bicep and ARM template deployment, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Azure Container Registry, Azure Container Instances, Azure Container Apps and Azure App Service configuration.<\/p>\n

This is not evidence that no Azure web or container service existed when AZ-103 was in use. It means today’s candidate has an explicitly documented range of operating models to understand. A VM gives an administrator guest operating-system responsibilities; a managed web app shifts much of that operating-system administration to the platform; a container service adds image, environment and scaling decisions of its own. Knowing the boundary of administration is more instructive than listing all of these as interchangeable ways to ‘host an app.’<\/p>\n

An older walkthrough may deploy a VM manually and then attach resources one at a time. That can still teach resource dependencies, but it is incomplete as a preparation plan if the learner cannot also interpret a deployment template, identify a required Bicep parameter, or explain why a scale set needs health and capacity controls. Azure Resource Manager<\/a> provides the deployment and management context that connects these decisions; it should not be confused with the resource group itself or with an identity provider.<\/p>\n

Storage and networking retain foundations but use today’s controls<\/h2>\n

Storage is one of the clearest continuity areas. AZ-103 covered storage accounts, data import and export, Azure Files and backup. Those subjects did not vanish. The current AZ-104 outline also makes a reader responsible for access boundaries, redundancy, object replication, encryption, SAS tokens, blob versioning, soft delete, data movement tools and lifecycle management. These are operational choices with different consequences. Replication protects against certain infrastructure failures; blob versioning helps with certain logical overwrites; a read-only SAS allows constrained access. None replaces the others.<\/p>\n

A learner who understands old storage account types can still build on that knowledge, but should check the current Azure storage options<\/a> before assuming an old tier, security default or interface remains appropriate. The right question is not whether a feature appears in an AZ-103 book; it is whether the relevant current objective requires the candidate to configure, troubleshoot or choose it. That keeps useful foundational knowledge without preserving obsolete implementation advice.<\/p>\n

Networking likewise preserves IP addressing, virtual networks, subnets, routes, name resolution, security groups and load balancing. The modern outline calls out virtual network peering, user-defined routes, Azure Bastion, service and private endpoints, and evaluation of effective NSG rules. A blocked connection may depend on both subnet and NIC security rules; an apparently reachable private service may still be using an unintended DNS path. A candidate should be able to identify the evidence for the failure before changing the configuration.<\/p>\n

That is why network security groups<\/a> are better studied through the resulting effective policy than as lists of allow\/deny lines in a screenshot. Some historical screenshots are still useful to illustrate direction and priority, but they are not a substitute for verifying actual traffic behavior, routing and endpoint choices in a supported Azure environment.<\/p>\n

Monitoring and recovery are explicitly visible in today’s exam<\/h2>\n

Monitoring did not first appear with AZ-104. AZ-103 materials included utilization, VM management and backup in their older subject organization. The current AZ-104 outline collects more of the operational outcome under ‘Monitor and maintain Azure resources.’ Candidates should be able to interpret Azure Monitor<\/a> metrics, work with logs, configure alerts and action groups, investigate network reachability, and perform backup or recovery operations as appropriate.<\/p>\n

These tasks are connected, but they produce different kinds of evidence. Platform metrics can suggest pressure on a resource; a Log Analytics query can reveal events collected from the right source; an alert describes a condition and an action group determines notification or response. A recovery point proves that some protected state was captured, not that the restored application has passed a functional test. Learning to distinguish observation, detection and recovery is an administrator skill, not just exam terminology.<\/p>\n

A hands-on AZ-104 lab<\/a> can test each distinction by changing a configuration, predicting an outcome, checking the resulting evidence and safely cleaning up. That practical method works with many older tutorials too, provided commands and security defaults are checked against current Microsoft documentation first. It is particularly useful for avoiding false confidence from memorized multiple-choice answers.<\/p>\n

How to use an AZ-103 course or certificate today<\/h2>\n

An old AZ-103 textbook is not automatically useless. Its treatment of subscriptions, VMs, network address spaces and storage principles can establish foundations. Problems arise when a reader assumes the same book is a current AZ-104 syllabus. Platform names, default controls, supported deployment choices, and the very organization of the exam have changed. Some screenshots refer to Azure Active Directory, some scripts rely on an earlier command surface, and some practice questions test choices that are no longer the most suitable configuration.<\/p>\n

Separate the material into three categories as you read: stable conceptual explanation, product implementation that needs a current-documentation check, and exam logistics that should be replaced outright with the current Microsoft Learn guidance. Stable concepts such as role scope, subnet routing and redundancy are worth keeping. A command example or portal path may need verification. Historical beta prices, scheduling windows and retirement dates must never be reused as today’s booking instructions.<\/p>\n

If you passed AZ-103 when it was offered, the credential you earned was Azure Administrator Associate under the rules applicable at the time. That does not imply that an expired credential remains active automatically in 2026. Microsoft’s current associate certification policy uses annual renewal for eligible active credentials. Confirm present certification status in the Microsoft Learn profile and follow the current renewal requirements rather than relying on historical 2020 two-year validity wording.<\/p>\n

For someone sitting an administrator exam now, the choice is simpler: AZ-103 is historical, and the relevant current route is AZ-104. Use the latest published skills measured version, not a borrowed 2019 percentage breakdown, and focus on today’s full operational scope. The change of exam code matters mainly because it changes which official document should govern preparation; the underlying responsibility to secure, operate and recover Azure services remains the point of the credential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AZ-103 and AZ-104 are not two Azure Administrator exams from which candidates can still choose. AZ-103 is retired. Microsoft introduced AZ-104 as its replacement in 2020, and the AZ-104 skills outline has continued to change since then. That distinction matters to anyone using an older course, searching for an AZ-103 score report, or trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1648,1657],"tags":[96,1038,732,67,28,56],"class_list":["post-2028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-certifications","category-microsoft","tag-administrator","tag-az-103","tag-az-104","tag-azure","tag-exams","tag-microsoft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2028"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27063,"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028\/revisions\/27063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}