Azure AZ-900 Fundamentals Exam

Explore Azure Virtual Desktop

Azure Virtual Desktop is a cloud-based service that provides a virtualized desktop experience. It allows users to access a full Windows desktop or individual applications from anywhere, using various devices. This service supports Windows 11, Windows 10, and Windows Server, and offers both single-session and multi-session options for scalability. One of the key benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop is its flexibility. Users can bring their own images for production workloads or use images from the Azure Gallery. The service also supports pooled, multi-session resources, which can reduce costs by minimizing the number of virtual machines needed. Additionally, it offers personal (persistent) desktops for individual ownership and can automatically scale resources based on demand. Azure Virtual Desktop simplifies management by allowing administrators to use the Azure portal, Azure CLI, PowerShell, and REST API to create and configure host pools, application groups, and workspaces. It also provides built-in tools for role assignment, diagnostics, and insights into user activity and system performance. This unified management experience extends to both on-premises and hybrid configurations with Azure Stack HCI. Security is a major focus of Azure Virtual Desktop. It uses reverse connections to ensure secure access without the need for open inbound ports. Users can connect to their virtual desktops and applications through various clients, including Windows App, Remote Desktop client, and web browsers. The service also supports features like multiple monitor setups, custom display resolutions, and device redirection.

In summary, Azure Virtual Desktop offers a comprehensive solution for virtual desktop and application delivery, with features that support remote work, secure access, and centralized management. It is designed to be flexible, scalable, and cost-effective, making it suitable for a wide range of use cases.

Evaluate Use Cases and Benefits

Azure Virtual Machines (VMs)

Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) are a core compute resource in Azure, providing on-demand, scalable computing power. Azure VMs are ideal for a variety of workloads, including development and testing, running applications, and extending your data center. They offer flexibility in terms of operating systems, networking, and storage options, making them suitable for both Windows and Linux environments. Key benefits include scalability, cost-efficiency, and the ability to manage and maintain the underlying infrastructure.

Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets

Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets allow you to deploy and manage a set of identical VMs. This service is designed to support large-scale services that require high availability and scalability. Scale sets automatically increase or decrease the number of VM instances based on demand or a defined schedule, ensuring that your applications can handle varying loads efficiently. Benefits include simplified management, automatic scaling, and integration with Azure Load Balancer for distributing traffic.

Availability Sets

Availability Sets are a feature in Azure that ensures your VMs are distributed across multiple isolated hardware nodes in a cluster. This configuration protects your applications from hardware failures and maintenance events. By placing VMs in an availability set, you can achieve a higher level of availability and reliability for your applications. Key advantages include fault tolerance, improved uptime, and compliance with Azure's Service Level Agreement (SLA) for VMs.

Azure Virtual Desktop

Azure Virtual Desktop (formerly Windows Virtual Desktop) is a comprehensive desktop and application virtualization service running in the cloud. It allows users to access a full Windows desktop experience from any device, providing flexibility and mobility. Use cases include remote work, secure access to corporate resources, and simplified IT management. Benefits include cost savings on infrastructure, enhanced security, and the ability to scale resources based on user demand.

Comparing the Options

When evaluating these Azure compute options, consider factors such as scalability, cost, performance, and management. Azure VMs offer flexibility and control, making them suitable for a wide range of applications. Virtual Machine Scale Sets are ideal for applications that require automatic scaling and high availability. Availability Sets provide fault tolerance and improved uptime for critical applications. Azure Virtual Desktop is perfect for remote work scenarios and secure access to corporate resources.

By understanding the features, use cases, and benefits of each option, you can make informed decisions about which Azure compute service best meets your needs.

Analyze Availability Sets

Availability sets in Azure are designed to ensure that your virtual machines (VMs) remain operational even during maintenance or hardware failures. They are logical groupings of VMs that help reduce the risk of correlated failures. By placing VMs in different fault domains, availability sets enhance reliability, especially in regions that do not support availability zones. To achieve high availability, it is recommended to create two or more VMs within an availability set, which helps meet the 99.95% Azure Service Level Agreement (SLA). Each VM in an availability set is assigned to an update domain and a fault domain. Update domains are groups of VMs and underlying hardware that can be rebooted simultaneously during maintenance. Azure ensures that only one update domain is rebooted at a time, minimizing downtime. Fault domains, on the other hand, are groups of VMs that share a common power source and network switch. By default, VMs in an availability set are distributed across up to three fault domains, which helps protect against physical hardware failures, network outages, or power interruptions. Availability sets offer improved VM-to-VM latencies compared to availability zones because VMs are allocated in closer proximity. However, they are still susceptible to certain shared infrastructure failures, such as datacenter network failures. For higher reliability, availability zones can be used, which deploy VMs across multiple datacenters, protecting against the loss of power, networking, or cooling in an individual datacenter. When creating an availability set, it is important to note that only VMs with managed disks can be included. The number of managed disk fault domains varies by region, typically either two or three per region. This alignment ensures that all managed disks attached to a VM are within the same fault domains, further enhancing reliability.

In summary, availability sets are a crucial feature in Azure for ensuring high availability and redundancy of VMs. By understanding and utilizing fault domains and update domains, you can minimize the impact of maintenance and hardware failures on your applications. For the highest level of reliability, consider using availability zones in conjunction with availability sets.

Examine Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets

Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets allow you to create and manage a group of load-balanced virtual machines (VMs). These scale sets can automatically adjust the number of VM instances based on demand or a predefined schedule, ensuring that your applications remain highly available and can handle varying levels of traffic. This automatic scaling helps maintain performance and reduces costs by only using the necessary resources. Scale sets provide several deployment options, including deploying VMs across multiple availability zones, a single availability zone, or regionally. This flexibility enhances the resilience of your applications by distributing VMs across different physical locations, protecting against data center failures. Additionally, scale sets integrate seamlessly with Azure Load Balancer, which distributes incoming traffic across the VMs to ensure even load distribution and high availability. Using Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets, you can centrally manage, configure, and update multiple VMs, simplifying the administration of large-scale applications. There is no additional cost for the scale set itself; you only pay for the individual VM instances you create. This cost-effective approach makes it easier to manage resources efficiently while maintaining the necessary performance levels for your applications.

In summary, Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets offer a robust solution for automatically scaling VMs based on demand, providing high availability, and simplifying the management of large-scale applications. By leveraging these capabilities, you can ensure that your applications remain responsive and resilient, even during peak usage periods.

Understand Azure Virtual Machines

Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) are a core component of Azure's compute services, providing scalable and flexible virtualized computing resources. Azure VMs allow you to run applications, host services, and create isolated environments for development and testing. They can be configured with various operating systems, sizes, and storage options to meet different needs. Key features include the ability to scale up or down based on demand, integrate with other Azure services, and ensure high availability through redundancy options. Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets are an extension of Azure VMs, designed to manage and deploy a set of identical VMs. This service is ideal for applications that require high availability and scalability, such as large-scale web applications or big data processing. Scale sets automatically increase or decrease the number of VMs based on current demand, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficiency. They also integrate with Azure Load Balancer and Azure Application Gateway to distribute traffic evenly across VMs. Availability Sets are another important feature that enhances the reliability and availability of Azure VMs. By grouping VMs into an availability set, Azure ensures that the VMs are distributed across multiple physical servers, storage units, and network switches. This setup protects your applications from hardware failures and maintenance events, providing a higher level of fault tolerance. Azure Virtual Desktop (formerly Windows Virtual Desktop) is a comprehensive desktop and app virtualization service running in the cloud. It allows users to access a full Windows desktop experience from any device, providing flexibility and remote work capabilities. Azure Virtual Desktop supports multi-session Windows 10, optimizes Office 365 ProPlus, and integrates with Azure Active Directory and other Azure services for enhanced security and management.

In summary, Azure offers a variety of virtual machine options to meet different needs and use cases. Azure VMs provide flexible and scalable computing resources, Virtual Machine Scale Sets offer automated scaling for large applications, Availability Sets ensure high availability and fault tolerance, and Azure Virtual Desktop delivers a robust desktop virtualization solution. Understanding these options and their features can help you choose the right solution for your specific requirements.