Monitor & Back Up Resources — MOC
MS Learn path: Monitor and back up Azure resources · Observability + disaster recovery — the operational heartbeat of an administrator’s job.
Map / Canvas
The core idea
Monitoring keeps you aware: Azure Monitor collects metrics and logs. Alerts + action groups react to conditions; KQL queries give insight. Protection: Azure Backup snapshots/backups VMs to a Recovery Services vault; Site Recovery provides disaster-recovery replication.
Concepts (linked from here)
Monitoring
- Azure Monitor
- Platform metrics & Diagnostics
- Log Analytics workspace
- KQL query language
- Alerts
- Action groups
- Alert processing rules
- Azure Monitor Insights
- Azure Advisor
- Activity log
- Azure Workbooks
- Application Insights
Backup & DR
- Azure Backup
- Recovery Services vault
- Backup policies
- Azure Site Recovery
- Monitoring storage/networking/costs
- Azure Backup vault
- Backup reports and alerts
Modules in this path
- Monitor resources with Azure Monitor
- Configure alerts and action groups
- Configure and manage backups (Recovery Services vault)
- Implement disaster recovery with Site Recovery
Skills measured (current exam blueprint)
- Interpret metrics; configure/analyze logs, alerts, action groups, alert processing rules, Insights, Network Watcher, and Connection Monitor.
- Create Recovery Services and Backup vaults; configure policies; perform backup/restore; interpret backup reports and alerts.
- Configure Site Recovery and perform failover to a secondary region.
Route check: Given an alert, identify the signal, data store, query, action group, and processing rule. Given an outage, choose backup/restore or Site Recovery/failover and explain why.
Cross-module lab
- Backup, alerting, and recovery
- Monitor signals, logs, alerts, and Insights
- Recovery Services vault policy and reports
- Site Recovery drill and failover decision
Ordered practice route
- Complete the Monitor and alerts modules, then az104-monitor-logs-alerts-insights-lab. You should now be able to trace a signal from collection through query, alert, routing, and maintenance suppression.
- Complete the backup module, then az104-recovery-vault-policy-reports-lab. You should now be able to select the supported vault, policy, report, and alert path.
- Complete the Site Recovery module, then az104-site-recovery-drill-lab. You should now be able to distinguish a no-impact drill from an actual failover and commit decision.
Practice questions
- Q: KQL query
- Q: backup vs Site Recovery
- Q: alert action groups
- Q: Recovery Services vault for backup
- Q: activity log for resource changes
- Q: backup alerts and reports
- Q: VM Insights and logs
- Q: Site Recovery failover
Conceptual checkpoint
Explain the sequence in this path using one workload scenario: identify the boundary being changed, the identity or tool acting on it, the expected evidence, and the failure that would change your decision.
Sources and re-audit
- AZ-104 course overview, checked 2026-08-31.
- AZ-104 study guide, checked 2026-08-31.
Re-audit when the AZ-104 course path, study-guide effective date, or the services and permissions taught here change.