AZ-305 Exam Study Guide Azure Solutions Architect Certification

To get the Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification, there is now a new exam that you need to pass, the AZ-305 Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification exam. In this blog post, I am going to share my AZ-305: Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Certification Exam Study Guide with you. 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-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
• Exam DP-300: Azure Database Administrator Exam Study Guide

Here is my AZ-305 Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect 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 AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions

Exam AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions
Candidates for this exam should have advanced experience and knowledge of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data platforms, and governance. A professional in this role should manage how decisions in each area affect an overall solution. In addition, they should have experience in Azure administration, Azure development, and DevOps processes.

Microsoft Docs

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

• Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions (25-30%)
• Design data storage solutions (25-30%)
• Design business continuity solutions (10-15%)
• Design infrastructure solutions (25-30%)

You can find more information on the exam website.

Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect certification

By passing the AZ-305 and the additional required exam, you will gain the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Candidates for the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification should have subject matter expertise in designing and implementing solutions that run on Microsoft Azure, including aspects like compute, network, storage, and security. Candidates should have intermediate-level skills for administering Azure. Candidates should understand Azure development and DevOps processes.

Responsibilities for this role include advising stakeholders and translating business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable cloud solutions.

An Azure Solution Architect partners with cloud administrators, cloud DBAs, and clients to implement solutions.

A candidate for this certification should have advanced experience and knowledge of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data platform, budgeting, and governance–this role should manage how decisions in each area affect an overall solution. In addition, this role should have expert-level skills in Azure administration and have experience with Azure development and DevOps processes.

Microsoft

You can learn more on the certification website.

Free Online Microsoft Learn AZ-305 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 AZ-305 Microsoft Azure Architect Design Certification Exam. Microsoft Learn is an important part of my AZ-305 exam study guide.

• Architect network infrastructure in Azure
• Architect storage infrastructure in Azure
• Architect compute infrastructure in Azure
• Architect infrastructure operations in Azure
• Architect a data platform in Azure
• Architect message brokering and serverless applications in Azure
• Architect modern applications in Azure
• Architect API integration in Azure
• Architect migration, business continuity, and disaster recovery in Azure

Microsoft Docs AZ-305 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 AZ-305 exam.

Design Identity, Governance, and Monitoring Solutions (25-30%)

Design a Solution for Logging and Monitoring

• design a log routing solution
  • Logs in Azure Monitor
  • Azure diagnostic logs
  • Enable diagnostics logging for apps in Azure App Service
  • Create diagnostic setting to collect platform logs and metrics in Azure
• recommend an appropriate level of logging
  • Azure security logging and auditing
• recommend a monitoring tool(s) for a solution
  • Azure Monitor overview
  • Best practices for monitoring cloud applications
  • Azure Sentinel

Design Authentication and Authorization Solutions

• recommend a solution for securing resources with role-based access controls
  • Add or remove role assignments using Azure RBAC and the Azure portal
  • What is role-based access control (RBAC) for Azure resources?
  • Quickstart: View the access a user has to Azure resources
• recommend an identity management solution
  • What are managed identities for Azure resources?
  • Use a Windows VM system-assigned managed identity to access Resource Manager
• recommend a solution for securing identities
  • What are Azure AD access reviews?
  • What is Azure Active Directory Identity Protection?
  • Secure your management ports with just-in-time access
  • What is Azure AD Privileged Identity Management?

Design Governance

• recommend an organizational and hierarchical structure for Azure resources
  • What are the Azure Management areas?
  • What are Azure management groups?
• recommend a solution for enforcing and auditing compliance
  • What is Azure Policy?
  • Tutorial: Create and manage policies to enforce compliance

Design Identities and Access for Applications

• recommend solutions to allow applications to access Azure resources
  • What are managed identities for Azure resources?
  • Use a Windows VM system-assigned managed identity to access Resource Manager
• recommend a solution that securely stores passwords and secrets
  • What is Azure Key Vault?
  • About keys, secrets, and certificates
• recommend a solution for integrating applications into Azure AD
  • Tutorial: Register an application in Azure Active Directory B2C
• recommend a user consent solution for applications
  • Configure how end-users consent to applications using Azure Active Directory

Design Data Storage Solutions (25-30%)

Design a Data Storage Solution for Relational Data

• recommend database service tier sizing
  • Azure SQL Database service tiers
  • General purpose service tier – Azure SQL Database
• recommend a solution for database scalability
  • Scalability
• recommend a solution for encrypting data at rest, data in transmission, and data in use
  • Azure Data Encryption-at-Rest
  • Azure encryption overview
  • Transparent data encryption for SQL Database and Azure Synapse

Design Data Integration

• recommend a solution for data integration
  • What is Azure Data Factory?
  • What is Azure Databricks?
  • What is Azure Data Lake Storage Gen1?
  • Introduction to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
  • What is Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly SQL DW)?

Recommend a solution for data analysis Recommend a Data Storage Solution

• recommend a solution for storing relational data
  • Understand data store models
  • SQL Server on Azure virtual machines
  • What is Azure SQL Database?
  • What is Azure SQL Managed Instance?
  • What is Azure Database for PostgreSQL?
  • What is Azure Database for MariaDB?
  • What is Azure Database for MySQL?
  • Welcome to Azure Cosmos DB
• recommend a solution for storing semi-structured data
  • Understand data store models
  • Welcome to Azure Cosmos DB
• recommend a solution for storing non-relational data
  • Understand data store models
  • Non-relational data and NoSQL
  • Welcome to Azure Cosmos DB
  • HBase in HDInsight
  • Azure Cache for Redis
  • Azure Table Storage
  • Azure Time Series Insights
  • Azure Blob Storage
  • Azure Data Lake Store
  • Azure File Storage
  • Azure Search

Design a Data Storage Solution for Non-relational Data

• recommend a data storage solution to balance features, performance, and cost
  • Non-relational data and NoSQL
  • Introduction to the core Azure Storage services
• recommend access control solutions to data storage
  • Access control model in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
• design a data solution for protection and durability
  • Data protection overview

Design Business Continuity Solutions (10-15%)

Design a Solution for Backup and Disaster Recovery

• recommend a recovery solution for Azure, hybrid, and on-premises workloads that meets recovery objectives (RTO, RLO, RPO)
  • About Site Recovery
  • General questions about Azure Site Recovery
  • Common questions about VMware to Azure replication
  • Common questions – Hyper-V to Azure disaster recovery
  • What is the Azure Backup service?
  • Azure Backup architecture and components
  • Azure Backup Server protection matrix
• understand the recovery solutions for containers
  • Best practices for business continuity and disaster recovery in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• recommend a backup and recovery solution for compute
  • What is the Azure Backup service?
  • Azure Backup architecture and components
  • An overview of Azure VM backup
• recommend a backup and recovery solution for databases
  • What is the Azure Backup service?
  • Azure Backup architecture and components
  • About SQL Server Backup in Azure VMs
  • About Azure Database for PostgreSQL backup (preview)

Design for High Availability

• identify the availability requirements of Azure resources
  • Regions and availability zones
  • Azure services that support availability zones
• recommend a high availability solution for Compute
  • Availability options for virtual machines in Azure
  • Manage the availability of Windows virtual machines in Azure
• recommend a high availability solution for non-relational data storage
  • Build solutions for high availability using Availability Zones
  • Azure Storage redundancy
  • How does Azure Cosmos DB provide high availability
• recommend a high availability solution for relational data storage
  • Build solutions for high availability using Availability Zones
  • High availability for Azure SQL Database and SQL Managed Instance
  • How does Azure Cosmos DB provide high availability

Design Infrastructure Solutions (25-30%)

Design a Compute Solution

• recommend a Virtual Machine-based compute solution
  • Virtual machines
  • What is Windows Virtual Desktop?
• recommend an appropriately sized compute solution based on workload requirements
  • Virtual machines
• recommend a Container-based compute solution
  • Choose an Azure compute service for your application
  • App Service
  • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
  • Container Instances
  • What is Azure Container Instances?
  • Introduction to private Docker container registries in Azure
• recommend a Serverless-based compute solution
  • Functions

Design an Application Architecture

• recommend a caching solution for applications
  • Caching
  • Azure CDN Documentation
  • Best practices for using content delivery networks (CDNs)
  • Create an Azure CDN endpoint
  • What is Azure Front Door?
  • Azure Cache for Redis
• recommend a messaging architecture
  • Choose between Azure messaging services – Event Grid, Event Hubs, and Service Bus
  • What is Azure Service Bus?
  • Quickstart: Use Azure portal to create a Service Bus queue
  • Get started with Service Bus queues
• recommend an event-driven architecture
  • What is Azure Event Grid?
  • Event-Driven Architecture in the Cloud with Azure Event Grid
  • Quickstart: Route custom events to web endpoint with the Azure portal and Event Grid
  • Tutorial: Monitor virtual machine changes by using Azure Event Grid and Logic Apps
  • Features and terminology in Azure Event Hubs
  • Quickstart: Create an event hub using Azure portal
  • Tutorial: Stream data into Azure Databricks using Event Hubs
• recommend an automated deployment solution for your applications
  • Use infrastructure automation tools with virtual machines in Azure
• recommend an application configuration management solution
  • Azure Automation State Configuration
  • Use infrastructure automation tools with virtual machines in Azure
• recommend a solution for API integration
  • About API Management
    

Design Migrations

• evaluate migration solution that leverages the Cloud Adoption Framework
  • Cloud migration in the Cloud Adoption Framework
• assess and interpret on-premises servers, data, and applications for migration
  • About Azure Migrate
• recommend a solution for migrating applications and Virtual Machines
  • About Azure Migrate
• recommend a solution for migrating databases
  • About Azure Migrate
  • Migrate a SQL Server database to Azure
  • What is Azure Database Migration Service?
• recommend a solution for migrating unstructured data
  • About Azure Migrate
  • Storage Migration Service overview
  • What is Azure Data Box?

Design Network Solutions

• recommend a network architecture solution based on workload requirements
  • Azure Networking architecture documentation
• recommend a connectivity solution that connects Azure resources to the Internet
  • What is Azure Firewall?
  • What is Azure Front Door Service?
• recommend a connectivity solution that connects Azure resources to on-premises networks
  • What is VPN Gateway?
  • What is Azure ExpressRoute?
• optimize network performance for applications
  • Optimize network throughput for Azure virtual machines
• recommend a solution to optimize network security
  • What is Azure Firewall?
  • Network security groups
  • Azure Web Application Firewall on Azure Application Gateway
  • Application Gateway configuration overview
  • What is Azure Firewall Manager?
  • What is Azure Front Door Service?
  • Create an Azure Bastion host
  • Azure security baseline for Virtual Network
  • Integrate Azure services with virtual networks for network isolation
  • Application security groups
  • Azure DDoS Protection Standard overview
  • Virtual network TAP
• recommend a load balancing and routing solution
  • Tutorial: Balance internal traffic load with a Basic load balancer in the Azure portal
  • Create an internal load balancer by using the Azure PowerShell module
  • Quickstart: Create a Load Balancer to load balance VMs using the Azure portal
  • What is Azure Front Door Service?
  • Quickstart: Create a Front Door for a highly available global web application
  • What is Traffic Manager?
  • What is Azure Route Server?
  • Virtual network traffic routing

Tips and Resources

I hope this AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions for the Azure Solutions Architect Expert Certification Exam Study Guide helps you pass the exam and get the Azure Solutions Architect certification. 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
• Learn Microsoft Azure in 2020
• AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam Study Guide

I hope you enjoyed my AZ-305 Study Guide and it helps you with exam prep. Did I miss any link, or do you have any recommended AZ-305 Azure Solutions Architect Expert Certification Exam Study resources? Let me know in the comments.