DP-300 Study Guide Azure Database Administrator

I am currently preparing for the new Microsoft exam DP-300 Administering Relational Databases on Microsoft Azure. That is why I want to share my new updated DP-300 Microsoft Azure Database Administrator Certification Exam Study Guide with you.  If you are passing the DP-300 exam, you will earn the Microsoft Certified Azure Database Administrator Associate certification, which you understand how to implement and manage the operational aspects of cloud-native and hybrid data platform solutions built with Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure Data Services. The Azure Database Administrator uses a variety of methods and tools to perform day-to-day operations, including applying knowledge of using T-SQL for administrative management purposes.

To learn and prepare for the exam, I usually use a couple of online resources, mainly Microsoft Docs and Microsoft Learn, which I am going to share with you. You can find more information about how I prepare for a Microsoft Certification exam on my blog post: How to prepare and pass Microsoft Certification Exam.

Also, check out other Microsoft Azure Certification Exam Study Guides:

• Exam AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam Study Guide
• Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam Study Guide
• Exam AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure Exam Study Guide
• Exam AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies Exam Study Guide
• Exam AZ-304: Microsoft Azure Architect Design Certification Exam Study Guide
• Exam AZ-305: Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Certification Exam Study Guide
• Exam AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Exam Study Guide
• Exam AZ-600: Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack Hub Exam Study Guide
• Exam AZ-700: Microsoft Azure Network Engineer Exam Study Guide
• Exam SC-900: Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals Exam Study Guide

Here is my DP-300 Azure Database Administrator Associate Certification Exam Study Guide

It is essential to get familiar with the exam objectives and skills measured first. That is why I recommend reading the description of the exam and the skills measured.

Exam DP-300 Administering Relational Databases on Microsoft Azure

Candidates for this exam are database administrators and data management specialists that manage on-premises and cloud relational databases built with Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure Data Services.

The Azure Database Administrator implements and manages the operational aspects of cloud-native and hybrid data platform solutions built on Azure Data Services and SQL Server. The Azure Database Administrator uses a variety of methods and tools to perform day-to-day operations, including applying knowledge of using T-SQL for administrative management purposes.

This role is responsible for management, availability, security and performance monitoring and optimization of modern relational database solutions. This role works with the Azure Data Engineer role to manage operational aspects of data platform solutions.

The high-level view of the skills measured in the exam:

• Plan and implement data platform resources (15-20%)
• Implement a secure environment (15-20%)
• Monitor and optimize operational resources (15-20%)
• Optimize query performance (5-10%)
• Perform automation of tasks (10-15%)
• Plan and implement a High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HADR) environment (15-20%)
• Perform administration by using T-SQL (10-15%)

You can find more information on the exam website.

Free Online Microsoft Learn DP-300 Exam Study Guide resources

Microsoft Learn provides you with free online training and learning paths for different Microsoft technologies. They not just offer reading material, but also control questions and free online labs. Here are some relevant Microsoft Learn modules and learning paths for the DP-300 Administering Relational Databases on Microsoft Azure Certification Exam. Microsoft Learn is an important part of my DP-300 Azure Database Administrator exam study guide.

The team also just made it easier to prepare with the new DP-300 related learning paths on Microsoft Learn. I highly recommend that you take these for your DP-300 exam preparation.

• Azure SQL fundamentals
• Plan and implement data platform resources
• Implement a secure environment for a database service
• Monitor and optimize operational resources in SQL Server
• Optimize query performance in SQL Server
• Automate tasks in SQL Server
• Plan and implement a high availability and disaster recovery environment

Microsoft Docs DP-300 Azure Database Administrator study guide resources

One thing I always used to prepare for my Microsoft exams is Microsoft Docs. Here are the relevant Microsoft Docs which I used to prepare and study for the DP-300 exam.

Plan and Implement Data Platform Resources (15-20%)

Deploy resources by using manual methods

• deploy database offerings on selected platforms
  • What is Azure SQL?
  • Quickstart: Create an Azure SQL Database single database
  • Quickstart: Create a managed instance of SQL Managed Instance
  • Quickstart: Create SQL Server 2017 on a Windows virtual machine in the Azure portal
• configure customized deployment templates
  • Azure Resource Manager templates for Azure SQL Database & SQL Managed Instance
• apply patches and updates for hybrid and IaaS deployment
  • Automated Patching for SQL Server on Azure virtual machines (Resource Manager)

Recommend an appropriate database offering based on specific requirements

• evaluate requirements for the deployment
  • What is Azure SQL?
• evaluate the functional benefits/impact of possible database offerings
  • What is Azure SQL?
• evaluate the scalability of the possible database offering
  • What is Azure SQL?
• evaluate the HA/DR of the possible database offering
  • What is Azure SQL?
• evaluate the security aspects of the possible database offering
  • What is Azure SQL?

Configure resources for scale and performance

• configure Azure SQL database/elastic pools for scale and performance
  • Manage elastic pools in Azure SQL Database
• configure Azure SQL managed instances for scale and performance
  • What is Azure SQL Managed Instance?
• configure SQL Server in Azure VMs for scale and performance
  • Performance guidelines for SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines
• calculate resource requirements
  • Resource limits for single databases using the DTU purchasing model – Azure SQL Database
  • Resource limits for single databases using the vCore purchasing model
• evaluate database partitioning techniques, such as database sharding
  • Horizontal, vertical, and functional data partitioning

Evaluate a strategy for moving to Azure

• evaluate requirements for the migration
• evaluate offline or online migration strategies
• evaluate requirements for the upgrade
• evaluate offline or online upgrade strategies
• Covering moving to Azure strategy
  • SQL Server migration documentation
  • Overview of Data Migration Assistant
  • Perform a SQL Server migration assessment with Data Migration Assistant
  • SQL Server Migration Assistant

Implement a migration or upgrade strategy for moving to Azure

• implement an online migration strategy
• implement an offline migration strategy
• implement an online upgrade strategy
• implement an offline upgrade strategy
• Covering Migration or Upgrade Topics:
  • Migrate SQL Server to Azure SQL Database
  • Upgrade SQL Server
  • Supported version & edition upgrades
  • Configure settings for Data Migration Assistant
  • Upgrade SQL Server using the Data Migration Assistant
  • Best practices for running Data Migration Assistant

Implement a Secure Environment (15-20%)

Configure database authentication by using platform and database tools

• configure Azure AD authentication
  • Configure and manage Azure AD authentication with Azure SQL
• create users from Azure AD identities
  • Use Azure Active Directory authentication
• configure security principals
  • Securing SQL Server

Configure database authorization by using platform and database tools

• configure database and object-level permissions using graphical tools
  • Getting Started with Database Engine Permissions
  • Permissions (Database Engine)
• apply principle of least privilege for all securables
  • Authorization and Permissions in SQL Server

Implement security for data at rest

• implement Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
  • Transparent data encryption for SQL Database and Azure Synapse
• implement object-level encryption
  • Always Encrypted: Protect sensitive data and store encryption keys in Azure Key Vault
• implement Dynamic Data Masking
  • Dynamic data masking 
  • Get started with SQL Database dynamic data masking with the Azure portal
• implement Azure Key Vault and disk encryption for Azure VMs
  • Quickstart: Create and encrypt a Windows virtual machine with the Azure portal

Implement security for data in transit

• configure server and database-level firewall rules
  • Azure SQL Database and Azure Synapse IP firewall rules
• implement Always Encrypted
  • Always Encrypted 
  • Configure Always Encrypted by using the Windows certificate store

Implement compliance controls for sensitive data

• apply a data classification strategy
  • SQL Data Discovery and Classification
  • What is data classification? (Cloud Adoption Framework)
• configure server and database audits
  • Auditing for Azure SQL Database and Azure Synapse Analytics
  • Create a server audit and database audit specification
• implement data change tracking
  • Track Data Changes (SQL Server)
  • Enable and Disable Change Tracking (SQL Server)
• perform a vulnerability assessment
  • SQL Vulnerability Assessment helps you identify database vulnerabilities
  • SQL Vulnerability Assessment

Monitor and Optimize Operational Resources (15-20%)

Monitor activity and performance

• prepare an operational performance baseline
  • Establish a Performance Baseline
• determine sources for performance metrics
  • Monitoring performance by using the Query Store
  • Query Performance Insight for Azure SQL Database
  • Monitoring and performance tuning in Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance
• interpret performance metrics
  • Performance Monitoring and Tuning Tools
• assess database performance by using Intelligent Insights for Azure SQL Database and Managed Instance
  • Query Performance Insight for Azure SQL Database
• configure and monitor activity and performance at the infrastructure, server, service, and database levels
  • Query Profiling Infrastructure

Implement performance-related maintenance tasks

• implement index maintenance tasks
  • Rebuild Index Task (Maintenance Plan)
• implement statistics maintenance tasks
  • Update Statistics Task (Maintenance Plan)
• configure database auto-tuning
  • Enable automatic tuning in the Azure portal to monitor queries and improve workload performance
• automate database maintenance tasks (Azure SQL agent jobs, Azure automation, SQL server agent jobs)
  • Use the Maintenance Plan Wizard
  • Automate management tasks using database jobs
  • Manage databases in Azure SQL Database by using Azure Automation
  • Automating Azure SQL DB index and statistics maintenance using Azure Automation
  • Create a Job
• manage storage capacity
  • Maximum capacity specifications for SQL Server
  • Storage configuration for SQL Server VMs

Identify performance-related issues

• configure Query Store to collect performance data
  • Monitoring performance by using the Query Store
• identify sessions that cause blocking
  • Determine Which Queries Are Holding Locks
  • Understanding and resolving SQL Server blocking problems
  • Finding Blocking Queries in SQL Azure
• assess growth/fragmentation of databases and logs
  • Resolve index fragmentation by reorganizing or rebuilding indexes
• assess performance-related database configuration parameters (including AutoClose, AutoShrink, AutoGrowth)
  • Considerations for the “autogrow” and “autoshrink” settings in SQL Server
  • Set the AUTO_CLOSE Database Option to OFF
  • Considerations for the “autogrow” and “autoshrink” settings in SQL Server

Configure resources for optimal performance

• configure storage and infrastructure resources, optimize IOPS, throughput, and latency, optimize tempdb performance, optimize data and log files for performance
  • Storage configuration for SQL Server VMs
  • tempdb database
  • Manage the size of the transaction log file
• configure server and service account settings for performance
  • How to determine proper SQL Server configuration settings
  • Configure Windows Service Accounts and Permissions
• configure Resource Governor for performance
  • Resource Governor

Configure a user database for optimal performance

• implement database-scoped configuration
  • ALTER DATABASE SCOPED CONFIGURATION (Transact-SQL)
• configure compute resources for scaling
  • Scale single database resources in Azure SQL Database
• configure Intelligent Query Processing (IQP)
  • Intelligent query processing in SQL databases

Optimize Query Performance (5-10%)

Review query plans

• determine the appropriate type of execution plan (live Query Statistics, Actual Execution Plan, Estimated Execution Plan)
  • Live Query Statistics
  • Execution Plans
  • Display an Actual Execution Plan
  • Display the Estimated Execution Plan
• identify problem areas in execution plans
  • Analyze an Actual Execution Plan
• extract query plans from the Query Store
  • Monitoring performance by using the Query Store

Evaluate performance improvements

• determine the appropriate Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) to gather query performance information
  • Monitoring Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance performance using dynamic management views
• identify performance issues using DMVs
  • Monitoring Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance performance using dynamic management views
• identify and implement index changes for queries
  • SQL Server Index Architecture and Design Guide
• recommend query construct modifications based on resource usage
  • Upgrading Databases by using the Query Tuning Assistant
• assess the use of hints for query performance
  • Hints (Transact-SQL) – Query

Review database table and index design

• identify data quality issues with duplication of data
  • Introduction to Data Quality Services
  • Data Matching
• identify normal form of database tables
  • Description of the database normalization basics
• assess index design for performance
  • SQL Server Index Architecture and Design Guide
• validate data types defined for columns
  • SQL Data Types
• recommend table and index storage including filegroups
  • Database Files and Filegroups
• evaluate table partitioning strategy
  • Horizontal, vertical, and functional data partitioning
• evaluate the use of compression for tables and indexes
  • Enable Compression on a Table or Index
  • sp_estimate_data_compression_savings (Transact-SQL)

Perform Automation of Tasks (10-15%)

Create scheduled tasks

• manage schedules for regular maintenance jobs
  • Automate management tasks using database jobs
  • Schedule a Job
• configure multi-server automation
  • Create a Multiserver Environment 
  • Automated Administration Across an Enterprise
• configure notifications for task success/failure/non-completion
  • Notify an Operator of Job Status

Evaluate and implement an alert and notification strategy

• create event notifications based on metrics
  • Create alerts for Azure SQL Database and Azure Synapse Analytics using the Azure portal
  • Create alerts for Azure SQL Managed Instance using the Azure portal
• create event notifications for Azure resources
  • Event Notifications
  • CREATE EVENT NOTIFICATION (Transact-SQL)
• create alerts for server configuration changes
  • Create, view, and manage activity log alerts by using Azure Monitor
• create tasks that respond to event notifications
  • Respond to events with Azure Monitor Alerts

Manage and automate tasks in Azure

• perform automated deployment methods for resources
  • Azure SQL database deployment
• automate Backups
  • Automated backups – Azure SQL Database & SQL Managed Instance
• automate performance tuning and patching
  • Automatic tuning in Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance
  • Automated Patching for SQL Server on Azure virtual machines (Resource Manager)
• implement policies by using automated evaluation modes
  • Administer Servers by Using Policy-Based Management

Plan and Implement a High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HADR) Environment (15-20%)

Recommend an HADR strategy for a data platform solution

• recommend HADR strategy based on RPO/RTO requirements
  • Overview of business continuity with Azure SQL Database
• evaluate HADR for hybrid deployments
  • Business continuity and HADR for SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines
• evaluate Azure-specific HADR solutions
  • High availability for Azure SQL Database and SQL Managed Instance
  • Business continuity and HADR for SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines
• identify resources for HADR solutions
  • Business continuity and database recovery – SQL Server
  • About Log Shipping (SQL Server)
  • Database Mirroring (SQL Server)
  • Always On Failover Cluster Instances (SQL Server)
  • What is an Always On availability group?
  • Always On availability groups: a high-availability and disaster-recovery solution
  • SQL Server Backup and Restore with Microsoft Azure Blob Storage Service

Test an HADR strategy by using platform, OS, and database tools

• test HA by using failover
  • Perform a planned manual failover of an Always On availability group (SQL Server)
  • Configure a failover group for Azure SQL Database
• test DR by using failover or restore
  • Restore your Azure SQL Database or failover to a secondary

Perform backup and restore a database by using database tools

• perform a database backup with options
  • Back Up Database (Backup Options Page)
  • Create a Full Database Backup
  • Create a Differential Database Backup (SQL Server)
• perform a database restore with options
  • Restore Database (Options Page) 
  • RESTORE Statements (Transact-SQL)
• perform a database restore to a point in time
  • Restore a SQL Server Database to a Point in Time (Full Recovery Model)
• configure long-term backup retention
  • Backup Timeline 
  • Long-term retention – Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance
  • Manage Azure SQL Database long-term backup retention

Configure HA/DR by using OS, platform, and database tools

• configure replication
  • Replication to Azure SQL Database
  • Tutorial: Prepare SQL Server for replication (publisher, distributor, subscriber)
  • Restore your Azure SQL Database or failover to a secondary
• create an Availability Group
  • Use Azure portal to configure an availability group (Preview) for SQL Server on Azure VM
  • Tutorial: Manually configure an availability group (SQL Server on Azure VMs)
• configure auto-failover groups
  • Use auto-failover groups to enable transparent and coordinated failover of multiple databases
  • Failover and Failover Modes (Always On Availability Groups)
• integrate a database into an Availability Group
  • Add a Database to an Always On availability group
• configure quorum options for a Windows Server Failover Cluster
  • Configure and manage quorum
  • WSFC Quorum Modes and Voting Configuration (SQL Server)
• configure an Availability Group listener
  • Configure a listener for an Always On availability group

Perform Administration by Using T-SQL (10-15%)

Examine system health

• evaluate database health using DMVs
• evaluate server health using DMVs
• perform database consistency checks by using DBCC

Monitor database configuration by using T-SQL

• assess proper database autogrowth configuration
  • Monitoring Microsoft Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance performance using dynamic management views
  • Considerations for the “autogrow” and “autoshrink” settings in SQL Server
• report on database free space
  • sp_clean_db_free_space (Transact-SQL)
  • Display Data and Log Space Information for a Database
• review database configuration options
  • sys.configurations (Transact-SQL)
  • ALTER DATABASE SCOPED CONFIGURATION (Transact-SQL)

Perform backup and restore a database by using T-SQL

• prepare databases for Always On Availability Groups
  • Prepare a secondary database for an Always On availability group
• perform transaction log backup
  • Back Up a Transaction Log
• perform restore of user databases
  • Restore a Database Backup Using SSMS
• perform database backups with options
  • BACKUP (Transact-SQL)

Manage authentication by using T-SQL

• manage certificates
  • ALTER CERTIFICATE (Transact-SQL)
• manage security principals
  • Principals (Database Engine)
  • Tutorial: Security in Azure SQL Managed Instance using Azure AD server principals (logins)

Manage authorization by using T-SQL

• configure permissions for users to access database objects
  • Permissions (Database Engine)
  • Grant a Permission to a Principal
• configure permissions by using custom roles
  • Create an Application Role
  • CREATE ROLE (Transact-SQL)

Additional Tips and Resources

I hope this DP-300 Microsoft Azure Database Administrator Certification Exam Study Guide helps you pass the exam. I also recommend that you open a free Azure account if you don’t have one yet. You can create your free Azure account here. Also, check out my blog posts about Microsoft Azure Certification:

• Why you should become Microsoft Azure certified
• How to pick the right Azure exam certification path
• How to prepare and pass a Microsoft Azure exam

I hope you enjoyed my DP-300 Azure Database Administrator Study Guide. Did I miss any link, or do you have any recommended DP-300 Microsoft Azure Database Administrator Certification Exam Study resources? Let me know in the comments.