AZ-104 is easier to prepare for when the study order follows Azure dependencies instead of the sequence in which topics happen to appear in a course. An administrator cannot reason clearly about private endpoints without understanding virtual networks. Role assignments are harder to apply without a firm grasp of scopes. Monitoring becomes abstract if there are no real workloads to observe. The best sequence builds those prerequisites deliberately.<\/p>\n
The current April 17, 2026 blueprint measures identity and governance, storage, compute, virtual networking, and monitoring and recovery. Those domains can be converted into a practical learning path that moves from control plane fundamentals into resources, connectivity, operations, and recovery. The goal is not to finish one domain permanently before touching the next; it is to reach enough competence in each layer that later topics have context.<\/p>\n
Use the AZ-104 exam<\/a> objectives as the boundary for the sequence, but let dependencies determine the order in which you practice.<\/p>\n Before building complex workloads, learn how Azure is organized. Create or inspect subscriptions and resource groups. Understand where management groups sit. Practice tags, locks, and policy assignments. Then create users and groups in Microsoft Entra ID and work through Azure role assignments at subscription, resource-group, and resource scopes.<\/p>\n This first stage establishes a mental model for every later lab. When you create a virtual machine, storage account, or network, you should know which subscription owns it, which resource group contains it, which policies apply, and which identities can manage it. Without that context, resource configuration becomes a collection of portal steps with no governance logic.<\/p>\n Review Azure role-based access control<\/a> with a least-privilege mindset. Instead of memorizing roles, ask what operations a user needs and at which scope. Then test inheritance so you see how permissions change as resources move or assignments are made higher in the hierarchy.<\/p>\n Storage is a good second stage because it introduces several Azure patterns without requiring a complex application. Create a storage account, configure redundancy, create blob containers and file shares, and move data with Storage Explorer or AzCopy. Then experiment with access keys, SAS tokens, identity-based access, firewall rules, and virtual-network restrictions.<\/p>\n As you practice, separate the decisions. Redundancy determines how Azure keeps copies. Encryption protects data. Soft delete and versioning help recover from logical mistakes. Tiers and lifecycle rules affect cost. Network rules affect reachability. Authorization controls what an authenticated identity can do. A good lab changes one layer at a time so the resulting behavior is visible.<\/p>\n Azure Storage<\/a> and Storage Explorer<\/a> are especially useful early because they provide immediate feedback: either a client can reach and manipulate data under the expected permissions or it cannot.<\/p>\n Next, build a small network deliberately. Create a virtual network with multiple subnets, attach network security groups, add user-defined routes, configure peering, and observe effective security rules. Practice DNS resolution and then add a load balancer so traffic distribution becomes concrete.<\/p>\n This stage should include troubleshooting from the beginning. Break an NSG rule and observe the symptom. Change a route. Remove a DNS record. Use Network Watcher and connection tests. Networking becomes easier when every failure is traced from source to destination instead of solved by random configuration changes.<\/p>\n A combined review of Azure virtual networks<\/a> and network security groups<\/a> will support later VM, App Service, private-endpoint, and monitoring scenarios.<\/p>\n Virtual-machine practice should now feel like assembling known layers. Create a VM in a chosen resource group and subnet. Change its size. Attach or modify disks. Place VMs across availability zones or sets. Explore scale sets. Move a VM when the scenario supports it, and observe which dependencies complicate the move.<\/p>\n At this point, return to identity by assigning a managed identity to a workload and granting it only the access it needs. Return to governance by applying policy or locks. Return to networking by controlling administration through Bastion or security groups. This deliberate repetition is valuable because the exam rarely presents compute in total isolation.<\/p>\n Also introduce infrastructure as code here. Take a known deployment, inspect its ARM representation, make a small change, and redeploy. Then perform the same task with Bicep if available in your study environment. ARM template deployment<\/a> becomes much easier to understand when the resources being declared are already familiar from manual administration.<\/p>\n The current blueprint includes Azure Container Registry, Container Instances, Container Apps, App Service plans, scaling, TLS, custom domains, backups, networking, and deployment slots. These are easier to learn after basic network, identity, and storage concepts are stable because the services reuse those platform ideas in managed forms.<\/p>\n For containers, practice the path from image to running workload. Understand what the registry stores, how an instance or app retrieves the image, what size or scale configuration controls, and how network or identity requirements change the deployment. Azure Container Instances<\/a> provides a focused way to see the container-management model without adding Kubernetes complexity that AZ-104 does not require.<\/p>\n For App Service, focus on operational decisions: plans, scale, custom domains, TLS certificates, networking settings, deployment slots, and backup. The administrator\u2019s task is to configure and operate the platform, not to become an application developer.<\/p>\n Monitoring should not be postponed until the last week. Once you have storage, networks, virtual machines, and a managed application platform, use Azure Monitor to compare their metrics and logs. Create alert rules, attach action groups, and explore Insights. Then use Network Watcher and Connection Monitor for network-specific evidence.<\/p>\n Azure Monitor<\/a> is easiest to retain when every signal is attached to a question. What metric would show CPU pressure? Which log contains the event you need? What alert threshold would be useful? What evidence would distinguish a network problem from an application problem?<\/p>\n This stage should include intentional failures. Stop a service, deny traffic, exhaust a resource, or change a configuration. The exam can present symptoms; hands-on practice teaches you how those symptoms appear in Azure telemetry.<\/p>\n Recovery should come late enough that you already understand the workloads being protected. Create vaults, configure backup policies, perform restores, review backup reports and alerts, and learn the role of Site Recovery for replicated failover. Compare these controls with availability zones, storage redundancy, and application-level resilience so their purposes remain distinct.<\/p>\n Azure Backup<\/a> should be practiced as a restore workflow, not merely as a policy-creation task. A backup that has never been tested is only an assumption. Even in a study environment, going through restore steps reinforces vault scope, retention, recovery points, permissions, and operational timing.<\/p>\n Then stop studying by topic. Build mixed scenarios that force you to identify the controlling layer. If a VM cannot access a storage account, ask whether the issue is identity, SAS or keys, firewall rules, private networking, DNS, NSGs, or routing. If an application is unavailable, decide whether you need scale, load balancing, monitoring evidence, backup, or failover.<\/p>\n Keep each stage small enough that you can repeat it from memory. Repetition is more valuable than building one oversized lab that you understand only while following instructions. Re-create a storage account with the required access controls, rebuild a two-subnet network, redeploy a simple Bicep or ARM definition, and reconfigure an alert without looking at a guide. Those short rebuilds expose weak recall much earlier than passive review does.<\/p>\n A good AZ-104 sequence is iterative. After learning networking, revisit storage firewalls. After learning managed identities, revisit compute access. After learning monitoring, repeat earlier labs with telemetry enabled. After learning backup, reconsider which resources actually need recovery protection and which availability feature addresses a different failure mode.<\/p>\n This loop prevents the common problem of remembering one domain only until the next begins. It also mirrors the work of an Azure administrator, who repeatedly moves between resource management, access, connectivity, health, and recovery during the same incident or change.<\/p>\nStart with subscriptions, resource groups, identities, and scope<\/h3>\n
Move into storage because it teaches access, durability, and networking in a contained service<\/h3>\n
Learn virtual networks before scaling compute practice<\/h3>\n
Add virtual machines once governance and networking are familiar<\/h3>\n
Expand compute to App Service and containers after the VM foundation<\/h3>\n
Introduce monitoring as soon as several resource types exist<\/h3>\n
Finish with backup, recovery, and mixed operational scenarios<\/h3>\n
Use a loop rather than a straight line<\/h3>\n