Azure Learning

Azure from Zero — Foundation Path

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tagsaz-104, foundation, beginner, sequential

3 min read

Azure from Zero — the Foundation Path

Start here if you’ve never used Azure. This is the sequential onboarding the rest of the vault assumes. Do these in order — each step builds on the last. If you’re already comfortable administering Azure, you can skip ahead to the learning paths.

How to use this path

  1. Follow the numbered steps in order — they’re deliberately sequenced so you never meet a term you haven’t been prepared for.
  2. Each step links to a concept note (the “one page” explanation) plus a what-to-try.
  3. At the end of each section is a ✅ Checkpoint — if you can’t answer it, re-read that step before moving on.
  4. Time estimate: 2–4 hours if you’re new; 30–60 min for a familiarization pass.

Step 0 — What is cloud computing?

Before anything Azure, grasp the model:

Try: Sign up for an Azure free account (portal.azure.com → “Free account”). You don’t need to spend anything.

Step 1 — The resource hierarchy (the mental model)

This is the single most important thing to grok first. Read in order:

  1. Tenant — the container for identities
  2. Subscription — the billing + resource container
  3. Management groups — group subscriptions
  4. Resource groups — logical grouping of resources
  5. Scope — how the hierarchy grants/inherits

Checkpoint: “If I have a subscription inside a management group, and I put a resource group inside the subscription, where does a VM live?” Answer: inside the resource group; and the subscription/management group above it define your billing, policy, and RBAC inheritance.

Step 2 — Azure geography

  1. Regions
  2. Availability zones (why regions are paired)

Checkpoint: “Why would I choose westeurope over eastus2?” — latency to your users, data-residency, and service availability.

Step 3 — The control plane: ARM

  1. Azure Resource Manager (ARM) — the engine every management action goes through
  2. ARM templates & Bicep — declarative (JSON/YAML) provisioning

Checkpoint: “Every portal button, CLI command, and template eventually calls what?” — ARM.

Step 4 — The tools to drive it

  1. Azure portal
  2. Azure CLI / PowerShell
  3. Cloud Shell

Try one: in the portal’s Cloud Shell run az account show then az group list. Checkpoint: “What’s the difference between portal and ARM?” — portal/CLI/Shell are clients; ARM is the service that applies the change.

Step 5 — Identity and access (you can’t admin what you can’t authenticate)

  1. Microsoft Entra ID (the identity service)
  2. User accounts and groups
  3. RBAC — who can do what, where (the authorization model)
  4. Role definitions and role assignments

Checkpoint: “Who grants a user access to a VM?” — via an RBAC role assignment (e.g. Contributor at the resource-group scope).

Step 6 — Where the modules plug in

Now that you have the mental model, the AZ-104 learning paths make sense:

  1. Manage identities & governance
  2. Implement & manage storage
  3. Deploy & manage compute
  4. Configure & manage virtual networks
  5. Monitor & back up resources

The mental model in one picture

Cloud model (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS)
        │
        ▼
Tenant (identities) ─▶ Subscription (billing) ─▶ Management group ─▶ Resource group ─▶ Resource
Region / Availability zone  (where things physically live)
        │
        ▼
ARM (control plane) ─▶ Portal ▌ CLI ▾ Cloud Shell
        │
        ▼
Microsoft Entra ID + RBAC  (who can do what, where)

Tenant · Subscription · Resource group · ARM · Entra ID · RBAC · Regions

Graph View

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