Azure Administrator (AZ-104): jobs, salary and the exam

An Azure administrator runs the Azure infrastructure that lets an organisation's applications operate securely: identity, governance, storage, compute, virtual networks, monitoring and recovery. For a sysadmin moving into this work, AZ-104 is Microsoft's directly aligned Associate certification; take AZ-900 first only if core cloud, operating-system and networking concepts are new to you. This guide covers the job, the available pay data, what AZ-104 tests, how to decide on AZ-900, and where an administrator can go next.

AZ-104 is not a promise of a job, and it is not a replacement for operating real systems. It is useful when you pair the credential with practical work using the portal, Azure CLI or PowerShell, and with a clear explanation of the decisions you made. Start with the role itself, then use the exam as a structured way to close gaps in the infrastructure skills the role needs.

What an Azure administrator does

Microsoft describes an Azure administrator as a subject-matter expert who implements, manages and monitors an organisation's virtual networks, storage, compute, identity, security and governance. That is a broad operational role: you make resources available, grant the right access, apply guardrails, watch for trouble and plan how services recover. The work is usually part of an infrastructure team rather than an isolated one-person function.

In practice, identity and governance work includes Microsoft Entra ID users, groups and licenses; Azure role-based access control (RBAC); subscriptions; resource groups; and policy. Storage work includes accounts, blob tiers, lifecycle rules, shared files and short-lived access such as SAS. Compute work covers virtual machines, availability choices, scale sets, containers and App Service, while networking covers virtual networks, subnets, public IP addresses, DNS, Network Security Groups and routing.

The operational part is what turns those components into an administrator's job. You collect logs, investigate alerts, set up backup and recovery, and work with networking, security, database, application-development and DevOps colleagues on the same environment. Automation matters here: Microsoft lists the Azure portal, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, ARM templates and Bicep among the tools an administrator should use, so repeatable changes are as important as clicking through a portal.

Azure administrator jobs and titles

Searches use several labels, including Azure administrator, Azure cloud administrator, Azure system administrator and Microsoft Azure administrator. Treat a title as a starting point, not as proof that two roles have the same level or responsibility. Compare the actual duties with the role definition: identity and governance, storage, compute, networking, monitoring and coordination with the surrounding infrastructure team.

The most useful preparation for an application is evidence that you can make and explain an operational decision. For example, be ready to describe how you would give a group access at an appropriate scope, choose storage replication for a failure requirement, connect networks or investigate a monitoring signal. Those are practical counterparts to the syllabus and make the AZ-104 credential easier to discuss without claiming that a pass alone proves production experience.

Build your examples around the tools Microsoft names for the role. A small Bicep or ARM deployment, a repeatable Azure CLI or PowerShell task, and notes on what you monitored or recovered show a different kind of capability from a list of services. Keep examples focused on working infrastructure and current services; Azure Cache for Redis is retiring, so it is not a service to recommend for a new design.

Salary: what the data says

There is no dedicated US government occupation category for Azure administrators. The closest official category, in our judgement, is the US Department of Labor's Network and Computer Systems Administrators, so these are US figures for that broader occupation, not a salary promise for an Azure-specific title. For 2025, O*NET reports a median annual wage of $99,130, or $47.66 per hour, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics a mean of $103,680.

The same O*NET data gives a range from $62,640 at the 10th percentile to $155,050 at the 90th percentile. It is useful context for a US comparison, but it does not tell you what a particular employer, location or Azure role will pay. This guide uses US government data only; local averages you see for India or elsewhere come from surveys or job boards, so treat them with caution.

What usually moves pay is the scope you can handle, not the badge by itself:

• Experience: operating systems, virtualization, incident handling and responsibility for live environments all change the level of work an employer can give you.
• Scripting and automation: Azure CLI, PowerShell, ARM and Bicep let you make repeatable changes and are named tools for the role.
• Security and networking depth: access design, governance, routing, name resolution and recovery work make an administrator useful on harder infrastructure problems.
• A second certification: add one only where it matches the work you want, such as solution architecture, networking, DevOps or cloud and AI security engineering.

The AZ-104 exam at a glance

AZ-104 is Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator, the required exam for Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate. It is live and bookable through Pearson VUE; as of November 2026, Microsoft's certification page lists neither a beta label nor a retirement date. There is no formal prerequisite exam, although Microsoft recommends experience with operating systems, networking, virtualization, Microsoft Entra ID, the Azure portal, Azure CLI, PowerShell and ARM templates or Bicep.

• Exam format as of November 2026: 100 minutes of exam time within a 120-minute appointment. Microsoft says most exams have 40-60 questions, not a fixed count, and provides an exam sandbox because it does not pre-identify the exact question formats for an individual exam.
• Score and access as of November 2026: the passing score is 700 on a 1-1,000 scale, which is not the same as 70% correct. Microsoft Learn documentation is available during the exam, and unscheduled breaks are allowed; use Learn to confirm details, not as a substitute for learning the core decisions before the timer starts.
• Delivery as of November 2026: you can take the exam with online Pearson VUE OnVUE proctoring or at a Pearson VUE test centre. It is offered in 10 languages.
• Price as of November 2026: US$165 in the United States and ₹4,865 in India, based on the proctoring country and excluding tax. Check Microsoft's current country selection before booking because local prices can change.
• Validity as of November 2026: the certification is valid for 12 months and can be renewed at no cost with an unproctored online assessment on Microsoft Learn before it expires.

The official Azure Administrator certification page is the source of the current scheduling and certification details. For a concise site-specific starting point, use the AZ-104 cert page for the overview and the AZ-104 practice questions after you have studied a domain.

What AZ-104 tests (5 domains)

The AZ-104 study guide divides the exam into five weighted domains. Use the percentages to prioritise a study plan, while remembering that the scenarios can cross domains: an access choice can affect a backup plan, and a network decision can change monitoring or recovery.

1. Manage Azure identities and governance (20-25%). Learn Microsoft Entra ID, users, groups, licensing, subscriptions, management groups, Azure Policy and RBAC. Start by understanding scope and inheritance: a practice question on additive RBAC permissions shows why effective permissions accumulate across role assignments. A practice question on elevating Global Administrator access reinforces that an Entra Global Administrator does not automatically hold Azure RBAC rights. For the broader distinction among access, policy and locks, read Azure RBAC vs Azure Policy.
2. Implement and manage storage (15-20%). Know storage accounts, blob storage, security, Azure Files, access patterns and resilience choices. You should be able to translate a requirement about primary-region zone failure, paired-region recovery or read access into a replication choice; a practice question on storage redundancy selection gives you that decision in context. The Azure storage redundancy guide is useful when you need a fuller comparison of those choices.
3. Deploy and manage Azure compute resources (20-25%). Study virtual machines, availability sets and zones, virtual machine scale sets, containers and App Service plans, plus the operational effects of their configuration. Cost control is operational too: a practice question on a VM stopped versus deallocated tests the difference between shutting down the guest operating system and releasing allocated compute hardware.
4. Implement and manage virtual networking (15-20%). Focus on virtual networks, subnets, public IP addresses, NSGs, application security groups, DNS, peering, routing and load-balancing concepts. Do not assume that peering creates every path you might want: a practice question on VNet peering transitivity is a useful check on hub-and-spoke reasoning.
5. Monitor and maintain Azure resources (10-15%). Learn Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, alerts, Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery as one operating loop: collect evidence, detect a problem, protect data and restore when needed. A practice question on cross-region restore vault redundancy connects recovery requirements to vault storage, while a practice question on Azure Monitor Agent data collection rules checks how guest operating-system logs reach Log Analytics.

The official AZ-104 study guide is the detailed checklist behind those headings. Work from it after learning the concepts, rather than treating the percentage weights as a prediction of the exact questions you will see.

AZ-900 first?

AZ-900 is not a formal prerequisite for AZ-104. Go directly to AZ-104 if you already understand operating systems, virtualization, networking and the difference between the Azure control plane and the resources it manages, and can start working with the recommended administration tools. In that situation, a foundation exam can be helpful context but is not required to book or earn the Azure Administrator Associate credential.

Take AZ-900 first if those foundations are unfamiliar or if you need a gentler introduction to Azure architecture, cloud concepts and management. It gives you a way to learn the vocabulary before AZ-104 expects you to make configuration and troubleshooting decisions. If you take that route, use the AZ-900 cert page for its scope and the AZ-900 practice questions to check your foundations; a practice question on Conditional Access is a good example of the identity and security thinking that carries forward.

For a wider view of where both credentials sit, see the Azure certification path. If you are choosing a first cloud credential rather than specifically targeting administration, the best cloud certification for beginners guide helps frame that broader decision.

After AZ-104

Choose the next exam by the work you want to take on, rather than collecting adjacent badges. AZ-305 is live and builds from AZ-104 into designing solutions for identity, governance, data and infrastructure; it is the route toward Azure Solutions Architect Expert. AZ-700 is live and goes deeper into hybrid networking, ExpressRoute, VPNs, routing and network security.

For delivery work, AZ-400 is live and adds CI/CD pipelines, source control, dependency management and instrumentation strategies. It requires AZ-104 or Azure Developer Associate for the expert certification; AZ-204 retired on 31 July 2026, so it is not a credential you can now earn as that route. The AZ-400 DevOps Engineer Expert guide explains that transition and the skills that come after the administration baseline.

For security work, do not plan for AZ-500: it retired on 31 August 2026 and was succeeded by SC-500, Microsoft's exam for cloud and AI workload security. Use SC-500 only when cloud and AI workload security engineering is the direction you want, and compare wider options in the cloud security certification guide. The point is to deepen a real work path, not to make a general Azure administrator role sound like every specialism at once.

How to prepare for the AZ-104 exam

Begin with Microsoft's free resources and use the official study guide as the boundary of what to learn. The free AZ-104 prerequisites path covers cloud fundamentals, PowerShell, Azure CLI and ARM templates. Then work through the free paths for identities and governance, storage, compute, virtual networking and monitoring and backup. Microsoft also provides free practice assessments and an exam sandbox through its certification resources.

For each domain, make one small administration decision yourself before testing it. Create and review role assignments at the right scope, choose storage for a stated resilience need, deploy and clean up a compute resource, trace a network path, then collect a log or configure an alert. The goal is not a large lab for its own sake; it is to connect each configuration choice to its operational consequence and to remove resources when the exercise is complete.

Use the practice questions here after that work, not as a substitute for it. Answer one area, read why the correct choice follows from the requirement, then return to documentation or a lab for anything you could not explain. This makes a weak result useful: it tells you whether the gap is RBAC scope, storage recovery, network routing, virtual-machine operations or monitoring data collection, rather than merely giving you a score.

Before booking, use the sandbox to get comfortable with the test environment and practise finding a specific detail in Microsoft Learn without letting lookup become your default answer. On exam day, identify the service, scope, failure condition and constraint in each scenario first. That method is more reliable than memorising a long list of portal screens, especially when several Azure services can appear plausible.

Frequently asked questions

Is AZ-900 required before AZ-104?

No. AZ-104 has no formal prerequisite exam, so you can book it directly. AZ-900 is a sensible foundation step when cloud concepts, operating systems or networking are new, but it is not a requirement for the Azure Administrator Associate credential.

Is the AZ-104 exam open book?

Microsoft allows access to Microsoft Learn documentation during associate and expert exams, including AZ-104. The exam timer continues while you use it, so treat it as a way to confirm a detail rather than a way to discover the core solution from scratch. Learn the main trade-offs and administrative patterns before you sit the exam.

How many questions are on the AZ-104 exam?

Microsoft does not publish a fixed AZ-104 question count. Its general guidance says most exams have 40-60 questions, and the AZ-104 format is 100 minutes of exam time as of November 2026. Use the official sandbox to become familiar with the experience instead of planning around an exact count that Microsoft does not promise.

Can I get an Azure job with only AZ-104?

AZ-104 can show that you have studied the Microsoft administrator role, but it does not prove that you have handled a production outage, access review or recovery. Pair it with evidence of administrative work using the portal, scripting or infrastructure definitions, and describe the trade-offs in your examples. That gives an employer more to evaluate than a certification name.

What is the average salary of an Azure administrator?

There is no dedicated official Azure administrator pay category. The closest official US data is O*NET's 2025 median of $99,130 for Network and Computer Systems Administrators, a broader occupation and, in our judgement, the closest official category. This guide uses US data only; treat local averages from surveys and job boards with caution.