2. Azure basics

Question 1

What type of cloud deployment model can Azure provide?

Answer 1

private & public cloud computing platform

Question 2

How Azure works ?

Answer 2

It uses virtualization : use hypervisor to run multiple VM

Question 3

How to purchase Azure license ?

Answer 3

1. From Microsoft by signing up through Azure website (monthly billing)
2. From Microsoft through a Microsoft representative (monthly billing)
3. From a Microsoft partner: CSP (Cloud Solution Provider)

Question 4

What is the billing system?

Answer 4

Pay-as-you-go

Question 5

What is Enterprise Agreement (EA) ?

Answer 5

• for big companies
• EA Portal: enterprise overview of all the spending and budgeting
• Discounts (on VM for ex)
• Access to enterprise-only service

Question 6

What is an availability zone?

Answer 6

Physically separate datacenters within an Azure worldwide region. Allows you to make applications highly available through redundancy connected through high-speed, private fiber-optic networks.

Question 7

What is the “region pairs” concept in Azure?

Answer 7

Each Azure region is always paired (E.g. West US paired with East US) to:
- Reduce the likelihood of interruptions
- Allows for the replication of resources
- Data continues to reside within the same geography as its pair for tax and law enforcement jurisdiction purposes
- Planned Azure updates are rolled out to paired regions one region at a time to minimize downtime and risk of application outage

Question 8

What are the different ways to be interacting with Azure ?

Answer 8

• Azure portal for interacting with Azure via a Graphical User Interface (GUI)
• Azure PowerShell, Azure Command-Line Interface (CLI) and Azure SDKs for command line and automation-based interactions with Azure
• Azure Cloud Shell for a web-based command-line interface
• Azure mobile app for monitoring and managing your resources from your mobile device

Question 9

How to start a cloud shell on Azure?

Answer 9

Click on >_ button

Question 10

What are the components of SLA for Azure ?

Answer 10

1. Performance Targets: Specific to each Azure product and service
2. Uptime and Connectivity Guarantees: Monthly Uptime % = (Maximum Available Minutes-Downtime) / Maximum Available Minutes X 100
3. Service credits: Describe how Microsoft will respond if an Azure product or service fails to perform to its governing SLAs specification.

Question 11

What is the composite SLA ?

Answer 11

Composite SLA requires that you multiply the SLA of each individual service so you need at least two virtual machines to make the calculation

Question 12

Azure Resource Manager: what is Azure resource ?

Answer 12

Anything you create in an Azure subscription. E.g. virtual machines, Application Gateways, and CosmosDB instances

Question 13

Azure Resource Manager: what is resources tag ?

Answer 13

Resource tags are used to locate and act on resources associated with specific workloads, environments, business units, and owners. It helps you better search, filter, and organize these resources. Therefor, it help with monitoring, automation and group billing data

Question 14

Azure Resource Manager: what is Azure Resource Group ?

Answer 14

Azure resource so it can have locks, tags, RBAC permissions etc

Question 15

Azure Resource Manager: how to organize resource groups ?

Answer 15

• By type (virtual networks, virtual machines, cosmos dbs)
• By environment (prod, qa, dev)
• By department (marketing, finance, human resources)
• Combining strategies e.g. environment and department
• By authorization (admin, RBAC)
• By life cycle
• By billing

Question 16

Azure Resource Manager: what is Management Groups?

Answer 16

Groups multiple subscriptions. Can have RBAC assignments and policies.

Question 17

Azure Resource Manager: what is resources locks ?

Answer 17

Resource locks prevent the accidental change or deletion of a resource.