Microsoft Azure Administration Skills Training Course

Course overview

Azure administrators are expected to provision services quickly while maintaining control over identity, spend, security, resilience and operational change. Many IT professionals can create individual Azure resources but lack a repeatable way to organise subscriptions, apply governance, troubleshoot workloads or demonstrate that environments meet business requirements. This five-day course addresses that gap through practical administration of Microsoft Azure using the portal, command-line tools and infrastructure-as-code methods.

Participants learn to administer Azure tenants, subscriptions, resource groups and role-based access control; configure virtual networking, virtual machines, storage and web services; and monitor workload health with Azure Monitor. The course also covers Microsoft Entra ID integration, policy enforcement, tagging, cost controls, backup, recovery and incident response. By the end of the week, participants can translate operational requirements into an Azure configuration that is secure, supportable and aligned with organisational standards.

Instruction combines focused demonstrations with guided lab work in Azure environments. Participants configure a multi-tier business application environment, apply least-privilege access, create network controls, deploy resources with Azure Resource Manager templates, and investigate simulated operational faults. They leave with an Azure administration runbook and a documented reference architecture covering resource structure, access assignments, policy controls, monitoring alerts, backup settings and cost-management actions.

The course suits infrastructure, systems and cloud professionals moving from on-premises administration into Azure operations, as well as teams that need consistent administration practices across existing Azure subscriptions. Managers gain staff able to make controlled, evidence-based changes rather than relying on ad hoc portal configuration.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Configure Azure subscriptions, management groups, resource groups and tags for accountable resource administration
• Assign Microsoft Entra ID identities and Azure RBAC roles using least-privilege access principles
• Build virtual networks with subnets, network security groups, route tables and private connectivity controls
• Deploy and administer Azure virtual machines, managed disks, availability options and update settings
• Configure Azure Storage accounts, access tiers, redundancy options, lifecycle rules and secure access methods
• Apply Azure Policy initiatives, resource locks and governance rules to enforce operational standards
• Monitor workloads with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics workspaces, alerts, metrics and diagnostic settings
• Produce an Azure administration runbook and reference architecture for a governed business workload

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Systems Administrators — who need to operate Azure resources alongside established on-premises infrastructure
• Cloud Administrators — who require a repeatable method for governing subscriptions, identities and workloads
• Infrastructure Engineers — who design and support virtual machines, networks, storage and recovery services
• IT Operations Analysts — who investigate alerts, manage incidents and report on service health
• Network Administrators — who need to implement Azure virtual networking and secure connectivity controls
• Technical Support Leads — who need clear runbooks for resolving common Azure access and workload issues

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience administering Windows or Linux systems and be comfortable with IP addressing, DNS, virtual machines, storage concepts and basic command-line use. Familiarity with Microsoft Entra ID, Active Directory, PowerShell or another scripting language is helpful but not mandatory. Learners should understand the purpose of firewalls, user permissions and backup procedures before attending. Prior Azure production experience is not required; the course builds Azure administration skills from these IT foundations. Software development, advanced networking design and prior infrastructure-as-code experience are not required.

Training methodology

The course is delivered through instructor-led technical briefings, live Azure demonstrations and structured labs completed in guided Azure environments. Each day participants configure a defined part of a business workload, from subscription governance and identity through networking, compute, monitoring and recovery. Short operational case studies require learners to diagnose access failures, network exposure, capacity issues and cost anomalies. Group reviews compare configuration decisions against business requirements. On day five, participants consolidate their work into an Azure administration runbook and action plan for applying the methods in their own environment.

Course outline

Day 1: Azure foundations, governance and identity

• Azure global infrastructure, regions, availability zones and resource providers
• Microsoft Entra ID tenants, users, groups and service principals
• Azure subscriptions, management groups and billing scope structure
• Resource groups, naming conventions, tags and resource organisation
• Azure RBAC roles, scopes and least-privilege assignment patterns
• Azure Policy definitions, initiatives, assignments and compliance results
• Resource locks and change protection for critical workloads

Workshop: Participants design a governed subscription structure and configure groups, RBAC assignments, tags, policies and locks for a fictional business unit.

Day 2: Azure networking and connectivity

• Azure virtual network design, address spaces and subnet planning
• Network security groups, application security groups and effective security rules
• User-defined routes, route tables and next-hop behaviour
• Azure DNS zones, private DNS zones and name resolution
• Azure Load Balancer, Application Gateway and traffic distribution choices
• Private Endpoints, service endpoints and private access to PaaS services
• VPN Gateway and ExpressRoute connectivity architecture

Workshop: Participants build a segmented virtual network for a web application and validate traffic paths, DNS resolution and security rule behaviour.

Day 3: Compute, storage and application services

• Azure virtual machine sizing, images, availability sets and availability zones
• Managed disks, disk performance tiers, snapshots and encryption options
• Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets and autoscaling configuration
• Azure Storage account types, redundancy models and access tiers
• Blob lifecycle management, immutable storage and shared access signatures
• Azure App Service plans, web apps, deployment slots and configuration settings
• Azure Container Instances and Azure Kubernetes Service administration considerations

Workshop: Participants deploy a resilient application workload with virtual machines, managed storage and an App Service component, then document its operational dependencies.

Day 4: Monitoring, security operations and cost control

• Azure Monitor metrics, activity logs and resource diagnostic settings
• Log Analytics workspaces, Kusto Query Language basics and log retention
• Azure Monitor alert rules, action groups and alert processing rules
• Application Insights availability tests, dependency telemetry and failure analysis
• Microsoft Defender for Cloud recommendations and secure score remediation
• Azure Cost Management analysis, budgets, forecasts and anomaly investigation
• Azure Advisor recommendations for reliability, security, performance and cost

Workshop: Participants investigate a simulated service degradation using logs and metrics, configure actionable alerts, and prepare a cost and security remediation report.

Day 5: Resilience, automation and administration planning

• Azure Backup vaults, backup policies, restore points and recovery testing
• Azure Site Recovery replication, failover plans and disaster recovery priorities
• Azure Resource Manager templates, parameters and deployment modes
• Azure CLI resource administration and scripted configuration tasks
• PowerShell Az modules for querying, provisioning and managing Azure resources
• Operational runbooks, change records and incident escalation procedures
• Reference architecture review against security, resilience and cost requirements

Workshop: Participants deploy a controlled change with an ARM template and complete an Azure administration runbook and reference architecture for the course workload.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Azure portal, Azure CLI, PowerShell Az module, Azure Resource Manager templates

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions