How to prepare for AZ-120 ( AZ-120 Exam Study Guide)
Are you planning to prepare for the exam AZ-120 in 2021 and don’t know where to start?
Here you can find the starting point and guide to prepare for AZ-120
Exams skills outline – AZ-120 Exam
Migrate SAP Workloads to Azure (10-15%)
Create an inventory of existing SAP landscapes
- network inventory
Azure Networking for SAP workloads
- security inventory
Azure VM security considerations for SAP workloads
- computing inventory
Azure Compute for SAP workloads
- operations system inventory
Infrastructure Technology Basics for SAP Deployment
- resiliency and availability inventory
Azure VM high availability & disaster recovery for SAP workloads
- SAP Database Inventory
- SAP Landscape architecture
- SAP workload performance SLA and metrics
SLA for SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances
- migration considerations
Best practices in migrating SAP applications to Azure – part 1
Design a migration strategy
- certified and support SAP HANA hardware directory
Best practices in migrating SAP applications to Azure – part 3
Certified and supported SAP HANA hardware
- Design criteria for Tailored Datacenter Integration (TDI) solutions
SAP HANA Tailored data center integration
- databox
- HANA System Replication (HSR)
High availability of SAP HANA on Azure VMs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
High Availability for SAP HANA using System Replication
- Azure Migrate
Protect SAP landscape with Azure Site Recovery
Disaster recovery for SAP HANA Systems on Azure
- SAP backup and restore methods and solutions
Backup guide for SAP HANA on Azure Virtual Machines
Backup & restore of SAP HANA on HANA Large Instances
- infrastructure optimization for migration
Best practices in migrating SAP applications to Azure
Design an Azure Solution to Support SAP Workloads (20-25%)
Design a core infrastructure solution in Azure to support SAP workloads
- network topology requirements
Basic Network Topology for SAP Systems
- security requirements
Azure VM security considerations for SAP workloads
- virtual or bare metal
What is SAP HANA on Azure (Large Instances)?
- compute
Azure Compute for SAP workloads
Azure VM compute, network, and storage considerations for SAP workloads
- operating system requirements
OS support of Azure for SAP workloads
- supported SAP products/versions
- storage requirements
Storage support of Azure for SAP workloads
- proximity placement group
Azure proximity placement groups for optimal network latency with SAP applications
- infrastructure requirements
SAP HANA infrastructure configurations and operations on Azure
Design Azure infrastructure services to support SAP workloads
- backup and restoration requirements
Prerequisites for backup – SAP HANA database
- SLA/High Availability
SAP on Azure–Designing for availability & recoverability
SLA for SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances
- data protection (LRS/GRS, Availability Zones)
Azure storage types for SAP workload
SAP workload configurations with Azure Availability Zones
- compliance
Azure Enhanced Monitoring for SAP
- licensing
SAP NetWeaver Licensing Mechanism in Microsoft Azure Cloud
YouTube video: SAP NetWeaver Licensing Mechanism in Microsoft Azure Cloud
- application interfaces
Extension and Integration Technologies from SAP
- dependencies
Design a resilient Azure solution to support SAP workloads (20-25 %)
- HA/DR models supported in HANA (N+N, N+M)
SAP HANA Large Instances high availability and disaster recovery on Azure
High availability and disaster recovery support of Azure for SAP workloads
Disaster recovery for SAP HANA Systems on Azure
SAP HANA Disaster Recovery Support
- application servers (NetWeaver and XS Advanced)
Overview of SAP application servers
- SAP Central services
- availability sets
Multiple instances of VM in the same availability set
- availability zones
SAP workload configurations with Azure Availability Zones
- Disaster Recovery (DR) with paired regions
Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR): Azure Paired Regions
- Database HA
High availability of SAP HANA on Azure VMs on SUSE Linux enterprise server
Build and Deploy Azure for SAP Workloads (35-40%)
Automate deployment of Virtual Machines (VMs)
- Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates
Create and deploy your first ARM template
- automated configuration of VM
Configure a VM with Desired State Configuration
- scripting with automation tools, including script development, script modification, and deployment dependencies
Use infrastructure automation tools with VMs in Azure
Implement and manage virtual networking
- IDS/IPS for Azure
Deploy network-based intrusion detection/intrusion prevention systems
- routing fundamentals
Virtual network traffic routing
- subnetting strategy
- isolation and segmentation for SAP landscape
Manage access and authentication on Azure
- custom domains
Add your custom domain name using the Azure AD portal
- Azure AD Identity Protection
- Azure AD join
Plan your Azure AD join implementation
- conditional access policies
- Role-based access control (RBAC)
What is Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC)?
- service principal
Create an Azure service principal with Azure PowerShell
- just in time access
What is Azure AD Privileged Identity Management?
Implement and manage identities
- Azure AD Connect
- AD Federation and single sign-on
What is a federation with Azure AD?
- LDAP/Kerberos/SSH
Configure secure LDAP for an Azure AD DS managed domain
Configure Kerberos constrained delegation in Azure AD DS
- Linux VMs Active Directory domain membership mechanism
Join an Ubuntu Linux VM to an Azure AD DS managed domain
- SAP HANA Cloud Platform Identity Authentication (integration with Azure AD)
- Monitor SAP workloads on Azure
- Azure Extension for SAP
- Azure Monitor
- Log Analytics workspaces & metrics
Implement Azure Monitoring for SAP workloads on Azure VMs
Build & Deploy HA/DR infrastructure for SAP products
- ASCS/SCS deployments on Linux & Windows (SOFS with S2D, Azure NetApp Files, 3rdparty products that emulate shared storage)
- HA/DR scenarios for SAP HANA
Implement HA SAP HANA on Azure VMs
- HA/DR scenarios for AnyDB
Implement HA SAP NetWeaver with AnyDB on Azure VMs
- HA for non-NetWeaver Products like SAP Business One, SAP Business Object BI
SAP on AZURE: HIGH AVAILABILITY setup for SAP BusinessObjects
SAP Business One on Azure Virtual Machines
- where to use load balances & troubleshooting connectivity
Public connectivity for VMs using Azure Load Balancer in SAP HA scenarios
Validate Azure Infrastructure for SAP Workloads (10-15%)
Perform infrastructure validation check
- Apache JMeter, Spirent Avalanche, Microfocus LoadRunner
What are the best Performance Testing Tools?
- Test implementation for SAP workloads
- Verify network performance and throughput
Designing for performance & scalability
- Verify storage
SAP HANA Azure virtual machine storage configurations
- SAP HANA Hardware and Cloud Measurement Tools (HCMT) (HANA)
SAP HANA Hardware and Cloud Measurement Tools (HCMT)
- flexible I/O tester (FIO) and DD
Flexible IO Tester: Practical Testing Tool for Developers
Perform operational readiness check
- Backup and restore
Backup & restore of SAP HANA on HANA Large Instances
- High availability checks
High availability for SAP NetWeaver on Azure VMs on SLES
- failover test
- DR test
Protect SAP landscape with Azure Site Recovery
- Print test
Printing on a local network printer from SAP instance in Azure
Operationalize Azure SAP Architecture (10-15%)
Optimize performance
- Test performance and health of SAP workloads on Azure by using ABAPmeter
Performance tool ABAPMETER (Towards the bottom)
- Storage structure
Storage structure of a VM for RDBMS deployments
- SAP workloads on Azure support pre-requisites
Prerequisites for SAP workloads in the public cloud
- scheduled maintenance for planned outages
High Availability for SAP NetWeaver on Windows
- Recovery plan for unplanned outages
Protect SAP landscape with Azure Site Recovery
- SAP application and infrastructure housekeeping (i.e. snapshots on OS volumes)
Increase ExpressRoute circuit bandwidth
- Bandwidth adjustment for ExpressRoute
- IPtables ExpressRoute Fast Path and ExpressRoute GlobalReach for HANA Large
- Instances (HLI)
Apply ExpressRoute Fast Path to HLI ExpressRoute circuits
Express Route Global Reach for HANA Large Instances
Migrate SAP workloads to Azure
- migration strategy
Strategies for migrating SAP systems to Microsoft Azure
- Azure Migrate
Migrating SAP Applications to Azure
Best practices in migrating SAP applications to Azure
- private and public IP addresses, network routes, network interface, subnets, and virtual
Connecting Azure VMs to HANA Large Instances
- Network
Accessing SAP systems running within Azure VMs
Connect a virtual network to HANA large instances
- storage configuration
SAP HANA Azure virtual machine storage configurations
- source and target environments preparation
- Backup and restore of data
Back up SAP HANA databases in Azure VMs
Restore SAP HANA databases on Azure VMs
- SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) (migration from DB2, Oracle, SAP ASE, to SQLServer in an Azure VM)
SQL Server Migration Assistant
The best place to start with AZ-120 preparation is the official Microsoft Documentation
| Exam AZ-120: Planning and Administering Microsoft Azure for SAP Workloads | https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-120?tab=tab-learning-paths |
The recommended approach is to complete the official learning path. However, it’s a personal choice. You can straight away start with the available online courses mentioned below.
You can attend the online video course available at Whizlabs or Plural Sight (Updated April 2021).
https://www.whizlabs.com/microsoft-azure-certification-az-120/
Building and Deploying Azure for SAP Workloads
Once you are thorough with the concepts you can take practice tests which will help you test your knowledge and gain confidence before the actual exam.
Practice tests are available at Whizlabs and Udemy.
All the best!
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