Microsoft Azure - Basics

Microsoft Azure - Basics

This post is to help me when returning to use Microsoft Azure after a stint working on other Technologies. Sometimes it takes me a few minutes to figure out the URLs and PowerShell steps to get connected.

I'm currently studying for the Infrastructure Exam 70-553 after it was updated in November 2016. I'm not sure if the exam prep companies have caught up yet. None I've found are clear about when they update their exams so I've sent off an email to one to find out if they have updated their question base specifically since then.

That said there are lots of resources out there and rather than repeat posts others have done on this topic, I'll just list a few links and get on with my Azure Basics capture:

Azure Arm Portal (New one!)
https://portal.azure.com/

Azure Classic Portal:
https://manage.windowsazure.com/

Official Microsoft 70-553 exam page:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/learning/exam-70-533.aspx

Blog on new Exam:
https://buildazure.com/2016/11/06/azure-infrastructure-exam-70-533-gets-arm-refresh/

Did you know you can do the exam at home now? There is a proctoring option you can apply for, they look around your room with a webcam and then monitor you while you answer the questions. Much nicer than travelling to a sterile testing center and walking the walk of shame to collect your failure result afterwards!!!!

I'm using a work MSDN account which gives me free credits a month. I attended the 70-553 course before Xmas also so I'm just getting back to the exam topics and refreshing my knowledge before booking the exam.

The ARM Portal is your main tool. Double click the background to change the colour to a darker one which I prefer.

I got a one year subscription to Pluralsight and watched their Infrastructure Videos before attending the course which helped but being able to ask questions at particular points really aids understanding, so having an instructor is very handy. Having a good instructor is really important. Pluralsight continues to offer new Azure videos all the time so it's a really good resource but the blog link above has several other resources you can use for free so use what works and what you've access to!

The Powershell and CLI Tools are available here:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/
Scroll down to "Command-line tools" and get the Windows install of PowerShell.

The Web Platform installer 5.0 runs when you launch the exe that is downloaded. This then installs / updates the PowerShell Azure cmdlets.

At this point you can use the same installer to add the CLI tools as shown above.

Note: You can also access & download the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 5.0 by googling "webpi" and browsing to the following URL:
https://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx?lang=

Open PowerShell and confirm the modules are active with the following command:
Get-Module -ListAvailable Azure*
The following command will give you an error but points you to Login-AzureRMAccount:
Get-AzureRmResource

Now connect up to Azure:
Login-AzureRMAccount
You get a pop up prompting you for your Azure creds, after entering your username, click the password box and pause. This gives it a chance to ask if this is a work or personal email and then you can proceed and enter the password for the correct account.

 It reverts to PowerShell and shows you logged in.

Now you can run Get-AzureRmResource for a load of output!

That's all the interface options, now open the exam section headings and start practising and reading the documentation and off you go! Good luck with the exam and Happy Azuring!