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Tag: exams

  • Free Microsoft Azure Exam Voucher

    EDITED OCT 2020: I don’t see these events being offered any more. It’s probably over for 2020.

    Microsoft has been offering free training online for the AZ-900 exam. There have been many sessions, and as they get full, new ones are being added.

    Here’s the Microsoft website that lists them through May and June:

    https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/community/events/?query=fundamentals

    These are two half-day sessions. And at the end, you receive a free voucher to take ANY Azure exam.

    So if you’ve been studying for AZ-103, AZ-300, AZ-301 or AZ-203 and haven’t booked it yet, perhaps this can help. You can attend two days of official Microsoft training on the basics, and then take the exam you want for free.

  • 70-532 Frequently Asked Questions for Microsoft Azure Certification

    70-532 Frequently Asked Questions for Microsoft Azure Certification

    I’ve been creating new videos for my YouTube channel. 

    Here’s a playlist of frequently asked questions that I put together for the Microsoft Azure 70-532 exam. If it’s something you’re interested in, please have a look. And don’t forget to subscribe.

  • October 2017 Changes to 70-534 Azure Architecture Exam

    October 2017 Changes to 70-534 Azure Architecture Exam

    Further information is being released about upcoming changes to the 70-534 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions exam.

    First, if you don’t know, Microsoft announced that the exam will be retiring as of December 31, 2017. A new exam, 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions, will be the replacement.

    Now new details have been released. The new exam will be available as of November 30, 2017. You will no longer be able to register for the 70-534 exam after that date.

    Microsoft assures architects that the 70-535 will be considered a direct replacement for 70-534, so any certifications earned with 70-534 will still be considered valid going forward. You do not need to take exam 70-535 if you’ve already passed 70-534.

    They also provided a preliminary syllabus for the exam. Let’s look at what stands out to me.

    First, similar to the 70-532 and 70-533 exams, some new areas have been added to the exam:

    • Containers
    • Web apps on Linux
    • Data Catalog, Azure Data Factory, SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Data Lake
    • SQL Server Stretch Database
    • Azure Database for MySQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL
    • Time Series Insights
    • CosmosDB
    • Network Virtual Appliances
    • DMZ
    • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
    • Azure AD Domain Services
    • Azure Key Vault
    • Azure AD Managed Service Identity
    • Azure AD Privileged Identity Management
    • Artificial Intelligence Services such as Cognitive Services, Bot Service and Machine Learning
    • More IoT
    • Event Grid
    • Azure Media Services added back in after being removed a year ago
    • Network Watcher Service

    These are just the things that catch my eye as being added to the exam that were not on the last version of the exam.

    Has anything been removed from the exam?

    Well there is no mention of:

    • Hyper-V
    • SAML
    • Azure SQL Database TDE

    Not much has been removed.

    So as it stands right now, if you plan to take the Azure Architecture exam before the end of the year, you should probably just go ahead and do that. Waiting until the new exam is live, and study materials are updated, might not be worth it for you.

    If taking the Azure Architecture exam is probably something that you’ll take early next year, I might wait to see how it plays out. There’s a few new things that need to be added to the course, and we haven’t heard yet from anyone who has seen the new exam.

  • 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions

    70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions

    That is not a typo. Microsoft just introduced a new Architecture exam code, 70-535. It will replace the 70-534 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions exam in “late November/early December 2017”. There is absolutely no details on the syllabus yet, although one has to expect it will be similar to the existing exam syllabus because the platform hasn’t changed that much. Most likely, they just want to completely reorganize the course into new sections and topics.

    Stay tuned here at SoftwareArchitect.ca for the latest information on this exam as it’s released. If you’re a student of mine in 70-534, you’ll also be notified of new content for the course (or a renaming of the course) in the regular announcement process.

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  • October 2017 Changes to 70-533 Azure Infrastructure Exam

    October 2017 Changes to 70-533 Azure Infrastructure Exam

    Last year in October, Microsoft announced some sweeping changes to it’s exams.

    And this year, they did it again. At the MS Ignite conference, they announced changes to the requirements for two exams – 70-532 Azure Developer and 70-533 Azure Infrastructure. Let’s look at the 70-533 changes with this post. I reviewed the 70-532 changes here.

    The changes are slated to take effect on October 12, 2017. They are posted to the US website only, and so there’s no official word as to how this will be rolled out internationally.

    Things removed from the 70-533 exam:

    • Storage objective – SQL Databases

    Things added to the 70-533 exam:

    • App Service objective – App service environment (ASE)
    • App Service objective – deployment methods such as Git and FTP
    • App Service objective – App service backups
    • App Service objective – Authentication and authorization for app service apps
    • Virtual Machine objective – configure fault domains and update domains
    • Virtual Machine objective – Azure Container Services (ACS), Docker, DC/OS, Swarm, or Kubernetes, Azure Container Registry
    • Storage objective – manage SMB file storage
    • Storage objective – Azure Key Vault
    • Storage objective – Azure Storage Service Encryption (SSE)
    • Storage objective – Encryption and RBAC for Azure Data Lake Store
    • Network objective – VNet peering
    • Network objective – Puppet or Chef to configure networking
    • ARM Templates – count loops and marketplace items
    • New objective Security and Recovery objective – Azure Key Vault, SSL task automation, Azure Security Center, Single-Signon SaaS, Manage access to a SaaS app, federation, public identity providers
    • New objective Security and Recovery objective – Backup vault, backup agent, snapshots, geo-replication for recovery, DR as a service
    • New objective Azure Operations objective – Powershell runbooks, Azure Automation
    • New objective Azure Operations objective – Analyze data across multiple systems, custom visualizations, data across multiple subscriptions, flexible search queries, monitor system updates and malware status, track server configuration changes with Azure Log Analytics
    • Identity objective – Azure AD Connect Health
    • Identity objective – Azure AD Domain Services
    • Identity objective – MFA

    And finally, the number and weightings for each of the objectives have shifted.

    There used to be six objectives and now there are eight. Microsoft shuffled some things around, so that topics that used to fall under one objective now were moved to another.

    • Azure App Services was 15-20%, now 10-15% (down 5%)
    • Virtual Machines remains 20-25%
    • Storage was 20-25%, now 10-15% (down 10%)
    • Virtual Networks was 10-15%, now 15-20% (down 5%)
    • ARM Templates remains 10-15%
    • Azure Security and Recovery (new) 25-30%
    • Azure Operations (new) 5-10%
    • Azure Identities was 15-20%, now 5-10% (down 10%)

    It’s hard to judge, since they moved things around a bit. But virtual machines, virtual networks, and security are the top 3. Storage and Active Directory (identity) fell the most.

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  • October 2017 Changes to 70-532 Azure Developer Exam

    October 2017 Changes to 70-532 Azure Developer Exam

    Last year in October, Microsoft announced some sweeping changes to it’s exams.

    And this year, they did it again. At the MS Ignite conference, they announced changes to the requirements for two exams – 70-532 Azure Developer and 70-533 Azure Infrastructure. Let’s look at the 70-532 changes with this post.

    The changes are slated to take effect on October 12, 2017. They are posted to the US website only, and so there’s no official word as to how this will be rolled out internationally.

    Things removed from the 70-532 exam:

    • Virtual Machines objective – Configure ARM VM Networking
    • Manage Identity objective – Hybrid connections, Site to Site VPN and ExpressRoute
    • References to DocumentDB

    Things added to the 70-532 exam:

    • Virtual Machines objective – Azure Disk Encryption
    • Virtual Machines objective – DevTest Labs
    • Azure Storage objective – connecting to Azure Files, shard large data-sets, blob leasing
    • Azure Storage objective – implement Cosmos DB Table API
    • Azure Storage objective – choose between Azure Tables and Cosmos DB Table API
    • Azure Storage objective – Cosmos DB, all aspects
    • Azure Storage objective – Redis caching for ASP.NET sessions
    • Manage Identity objective – MFA and MFA API
    • Manage Identity objective – determine when to use event hubs, service bus, IoT Hub, Stream Analytics and Notification Hubs
    • Manage Identity objective – Azure Key Vault
    • Azure Compute objective – goes deeper into Functions
    • Azure Compute objective – Third Party Platform as a Service (PaaS), Cloud Foundry, OpenShift, Azure Quickstart Templates, Azure Marketplace Solutions
    • Azure Compute objective – DevOps, Application Insights, Continuous Integration, Continuous Development, third-party deployment tools, mobile DevOps using HockeyApp

    And finally, the weightings for each of the objectives have shifted.

    • Virtual Machines, was 30-35%, now 20-25% (down 10%)
    • Storage, remains 25-30%
    • Identity, was 15-20%, now 10-15% (down 5%)
    • Azure Compute, was 25-30%, now 35-40% (up 10%)

    So you can see where Microsoft’s priorities for this exam are.

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  • How Microsoft Exam Scoring Works

    How Microsoft Exam Scoring Works

    Saw this video today about how Microsoft scoring works for MCP exams. Very interesting if you’re thinking of or taking a Microsoft exam.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyX3TJCf7Gc