The New Azure Certification Path

The Azure certification track is now divided into 3 tracks: Admin, Developer and Solution Architect.

 Ø The Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification consists of the following exams

      a)     AZ-100: Microsoft Azure Infrastructure and Deployment Exam
      b)    AZ-101: Microsoft Azure Integration and Security Exam

 Ø Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate certification consists of the following exam

      a)     AZ-203: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure

Note: Microsoft did release 2 exams in 2018, Az-200 and Az-201 but  these exams have been retired and replaced with Az-203

 Ø Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert consists of the following exams

      a)     AZ-300: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies Exam
      b)    AZ-301: Microsoft Azure Architect Design Exam

The following is the topic coverage of Azure Administrator Associate certification:

AZ-100: Microsoft Azure Infrastructure and Deployment focusses on the following major objectives:

•       Manage Azure subscriptions and resources (15-20%)

•       Implement and manage storage (20-25%)

•       Deploy and manage virtual machines (VMs) (20-25%)

•       Configure and manage virtual networks (20-25%)

•       Manage identities (15-20%)

AZ-101: Microsoft Azure Integration and Security covers a number of different technologies and concepts:

•       Evaluate and perform server migration to Azure (15-20%)

•       Implement and manage application services (20-25%)

•       Implement advanced virtual networking (30-35%)

•       Secure identities (25-30%)

The following is the topic coverage of Azure Developer Associate certification

AZ-203: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure focusses on the following major objectives:

•       Develop Azure Infrastructure as a Service Compute Solutions (10-15%)

•       Develop Azure Platform as a Service Compute Solutions (20-25%)

•       Develop for Azure storage (15-20%)

•       Implement Azure security (10-15%)

•       Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Azure solutions (15-20%)

Active Directory Domain Services Server 2016 Important folders and files

When you configure Active Directory Domain Services, you will be prompted for the above information.

The database folder whose default path is C:\windows\NTDS contains the NTDS.DIT file. DIT stands for Directory Information Technology.

The NTDS.dit file contains almost all information of Active Directory except Group policies. Group policies are stored in the SYSVOL folder

The EDB.log file is known as the transaction log file, any changes you make to Active Directory for example creating users, ou etc. are first written in the transaction log file and whenever CPU resources are available it will then write to the NTDS.DIT file.

EDBXXXX.log – In a situation that the main transaction log gets full then a new transaction log file is created with a sequential number. If there are multiple changes pending to your domain controller then you will see more of these files. (These files are not shown in the diagram above, so obviously not many changes have happened)

EDB.chk – This file is used to identify which updates (from the log files) have be written to the database and which ones are pending, in the case of an abnormal restart , Active Directory will use the checkpoint file and correctly write the pending changes to the database.

Step-by-step : Configure Active Directory Domain Services on Windows Server 2016

In this article you will learn how to configure Active Directory Domain Services, for this lab you should have already completed Installing Active Directory Domain Services role click here

Once you have installed the Active Directory Domain Services Role, click on the option “Promote this server to a Domain Controller.”

Just in case you closed the window, then you can also click on the notification icon on the top right side of the screen and click on “Promote this server to a domain Controller”

On the deployment configuration page select “Add a new forest” and provide a name to the domain. (The name should have an extension like, .com or any other that you prefer)

Select the default options , specify a password for DSRM (Directory Services Restore Mode) , make sure the password contains alphabets, special characters and numbers. (DSRM mode is a special mode using which you can troubleshoot most issues with Active Directory. To find out the different ways to access DSRM mode, click here)

click next

The netbios name will always be taken without the extension, hence leave the option default and click next. (To understand Netbios, click here)

Select the location of the Database, logs and SYSVOL folder.  The usual recommendation is to store the Database and logs on separate drives for performance and recoverability purposes. 

The Database Folder contains a file called NTDS.DIT, which has complete information of the ADDS database and the SYSVOL folder contains Groups Policies and Login/Logoff scripts). In case you want to know more details of the Active Directory folders click here.

On the review options page, you can review all the selections you have made, in case you want to change anything you can change now or click on Next.

On the pre-requisites checks page , click on Install.

Allow the computer to restart

You will now see the login page reflecting the new domain name that you have just created, login in with the administrator password

Open the Server Manager windows, click on tools and you will see multiple options related to Active Directory , click on Active Directory Users and Computers

Once you open Active Directory Users and Computers , you will see your domain and all the resources under the domain. You have now successfully configured Active Directory Domain Services.

Step-by-Step : Install Active Directory Domain Services Role on Windows Server 2016

In this article, you will learn how to install Active Directory Domain Services Role on a Windows Server 2016 Server. You can do this lab on a Hyper-V Server/client OS  or a Physical Server. In case you want to learn how to configure Hyper-V on Windows Server 2016, click here.

Open the Server Manager Window

Click local server on the left side of the window, and ensure that the computer name and IP address is configured.

Click on the dashboard, click on Add roles and features

Click on Next

Select Role based or feature-based installation

Click Next

Select Active Directory Domain Services

When you get the above prompt, click add features

You have now Installed the Active Directory Domain Services Role, to know about "How to Configure Active Directory Domain Services on Windows Server 2016 " click here