When I first sat for the Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104) exam back in July, I thought I was ready. I wasn’t.
I had done most of the study plan but skipped Monitoring and Backup; two topics that I thought wouldn’t carry much weight. They did. And it showed in the score report.
So I took a step back, slowed down, and planned a proper second attempt.
This time I was studying while working, so progress came slowly, bit by bit.
I started with the Microsoft Learn Study Guide. Always check for the latest version close to the time you plan to take the exams because Microsoft update the content and objectives.
Then I went through each module and fixed the weak spots from my first try.
Every weekend I did labs and made sure everything I learned was something I could try out in the Azure Portal. I did not do much of CLI or PowerShell.
Finally, I passed this exam.
My Prep Stack That Worked
First let’s start with what you would need for the labs (non-negotiable component of prepping)
Azure Subscription
An active Azure account (free tier, pay-as-you-go, or MSDN/Visual Studio subscription). About Azure Free Account
Enough credits to deploy multiple VMs, VNets, and services for testing.
If you’re doing labs and cleaning up resources daily, $50–$100/month should be sufficient.
If you want to keep resources running for several weeks for experimentation, aim for $150–$200 to avoid hitting limits.
1. The Core Materials
If you already work with Azure Admin services daily, you don’t need to overcomplicate it.
Here’s what worked for most admin professionals I’ve seen clear it quickly:
Microsoft Learn – Refresh the modules; don’t just read, do.
John Savill’s AZ-104 Study Cram (v2) – It’s concise and solid.
Practice Exam – Take one at least a week before your test; it highlights where you need to dig deeper.
But if, like me, you spend more time developing than administering, you’ll want a fuller approach:
Microsoft Learn (complete paths) – Do every exercise, not just the theory.
A full-length course video – Avoid short cram content. Recommendations: CloudLee, Any good rated Az-104 course in Online, Scott Duffy.
AI (Copilot or ChatGPT) – Use it to simplify hard topics. I’d often ask, “Explain like I’m new to networking,” and it worked wonders.
Practice Exam. Again, one week before the real thing.
The Labs That Made the Difference
Here are the ones that genuinely improved my understanding and confidence in the portal as a non-admin Azure person:
Virtual Machines
Create a simple web server on a virtual machine. Practice resizing and redeploying it, attaching and encrypting additional disks, changing IP settings, and setting up a virtual machine scale set to handle increased traffic
I learned that most tricky AZ-104 questions are based on real configuration behavior, not definitions.
Virtual Networks
Create a virtual network with two subnets. Deploy a virtual machine in each subnet. Add a NAT gateway to enable secure outbound internet traffic, and apply a network security group to control inbound and outbound rules. Test connectivity between the VMs using private IPs and confirm outbound internet access through the NAT gateway.
That’s where I finally understood how Azure handles routing and isolation.
Storage
Set up a storage account and create containers for blobs and file shares. Upload sample data, generate shared access signatures for controlled access, change access tiers between hot and cool, and add a lifecycle management rule to automatically move or delete old files.
Once I practiced setting up access policies, questions about permissions became easy points.
Other Important Lab Ideas:
Load Balancing:
Deploy a web application on a virtual machine and configure an Azure Load Balancer to distribute traffic across multiple VMs. Set up an Application Gateway with Azure Container Instances as the backend, and test that incoming requests are properly balanced and routed to the correct instances.
Monitoring:
Create a Log Analytics workspace and connect virtual machines to it using agents and data collection rules. Use Network Watcher and KQL queries to visualize metrics, configure alerts for critical events, and test that notifications trigger correctly
Backup & Recovery:
Configure Azure Backup to protect virtual machines and other resources, and set up Azure Site Recovery for disaster recovery. Test recovery scenarios to ensure that data and VMs can be restored quickly and reliably.
Governance & Cost Control:
Set up budgets to monitor spending, apply resource locks to protect critical resources, and enforce policies for compliance. Deploy sample resources using ARM or Bicep templates to practice automated, policy-compliant provisioning.
Final Take
After two tries, here’s what I’d tell anyone studying for it:
Don’t skip any module.
The labs are where things actually start to click. Every lab taught me something that a video couldn’t.
Talking about Labs. Here are some tips to minimize costs
Stop/deallocate VMs when not in use to avoid compute charges.
Delete unused resources after completing labs.
Use Azure Free Tier: 12 months of free services and $200 credit for the first month.
Practice exams aren’t only about the score. They show you what you still don’t get. Try to take or refresh them close to the exam date.
The skillset is quite robust & large but if you can study a bit every day, even for an hour, you’ll keep making progress.
When I finally passed in October, it wasn’t because I memorized things. It was because it all finally made sense and I could join the pieces together.
Some people are requesting for a live session to discuss this, if it is something you would be interested in, simply like this post and I would send you an invite.
That’s all for today and see you in the next one.