MCSA
AZ-802: Administering Windows Server
Overview of AZ-802 Consolidated Exam: AZ-802 replaces the older two-exam combination of AZ-800 and AZ-801, which retire on September 30, 2026.
Target Audience: System administrators and infrastructure engineers managing workloads in on-premises, cloud, or hybrid setups.
Prerequisites: No formal prerequisites are required, though foundational cloud knowledge like AZ-900 is helpful
Skills at a glance
Deploy and manage AD DS (20–25%)
Manage Windows Server instances and workloads in a hybrid environment (10–15%)
Manage virtual machines (10–15%)
Implement and manage an on-premises and hybrid networking infrastructure (10–15%)
Manage storage and file services (15–20%)
Secure Windows Server infrastructure (10–15%)
Monitor and troubleshoot Windows Server environments (15–20%)
Deploy and manage AD DS (20–25%)
Deploy and manage AD DS domain controllers
- Deploy and manage domain controllers locally
- Deploy and manage domain controllers in Azure
- Deploy Read-Only Domain Controllers (RODCs)
- Manage account security on an RODC
- Manage and troubleshoot Flexible Single-Master Operations (FSMO) roles
Configure and manage multi-site, multi-domain, and multi-forest environments
- Configure domain and forest trust relationships
- Configure and manage AD DS sites
- Configure and manage AD DS replication
Create and manage AD DS security principals
- Create and manage AD DS users and groups
- Manage users and groups in multi-domain or multi-forest environments
- Select and manage service accounts
Manage Windows Server by using domain-based Group Policies
- Implement Group Policy
- Implement Group Policy preferences
Manage Windows Server instances and workloads in a hybrid environment (10–15%)
Configure remote management for Windows Server instances in a hybrid environment
- Deploy and manage Windows Admin Center on-premises and in the Azure portal
- Configure remote management by using PowerShell, including double-hop and Just Enough Administration (JEA)
- Configure and manage remote Secure Shell (SSH)
- Configure and manage remote desktop access
Manage Windows Server instances and workloads by using Azure services in a hybrid environment
- Implement Azure Arc–enabled Windows Server instances
- Implement device configuration by using Azure Arc
- Deploy Azure services with virtual machine (VM) extensions on non–Azure machines
- Manage updates by using Azure Update Manager
- Create and run Azure Automation runbooks
Manage VMs (10–15%)
Manage Hyper-V and guest VM
- Enable Enhanced Session Mode
- Manage VMs remotely by using PowerShell, PowerShell Direct, and SSH Direct for Linux guests
- Enable nested virtualization
- Configure VM memory settings
- Configure integration services
- Configure device assignment
- Configure GPU partitioning
- Manage VM checkpoints
- Implement high availability for Hyper-V VMs
- Manage Hyper-V virtual hard disks
- Configure Hyper-V network adapter
- Configure network interface card (NIC) teaming on the Hyper-V host and VM
- Configure Hyper-V Virtual Switch
- Configure Hyper-V Replica
Manage Windows Server VMs in Azure
- Manage storage for Windows Server VMs in Azure
- Manage capacity, including resizing and VM scale sets
- Manage availability sets and zones
- Manage just-in-time (JIT) VM access and Azure Bastion
- Manage Azure Virtual Machines network configuration
Implement and manage an on-premises and hybrid networking infrastructure (10–15%)
Implement on-premises and hybrid name resolution
- Integrate domain name system (DNS) with AD DS
- Create and manage DNS zones and records
- Configure DNS forwarding and conditional forwarding
- Configure DNS name resolution in a hybrid environment
- Implement DNS policies
- Implement DNS security extensions (DNSSEC)
Manage IP addressing in on-premises and hybrid scenarios
- Implement and configure the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server role
- Troubleshoot IP addressing in hybrid environments
- Create and manage DHCP scopes
- Create IP reservations
- Implement high availability for DHCP
Manage storage and file services (15–20%)
Configure and manage Azure Files
- Create and manage Azure file shares
- Manage permissions for Azure file shares
- Configure and manage Azure File Sync
- Monitor Azure File Sync
- Migrate Distributed File System (DFS) to Azure File Sync
- Migrate from file shares to Azure Files
Configure and manage Windows Server file shares
- Configure access to Windows Server file shares
- Configure File Server Resource Manager (FSRM)
- Implement and configure DFS
- Configure Server Message Block (SMB) over QUIC
- Configure SMB settings and management
Configure Windows Server storage
- Configure disks and volumes
- Configure and manage Storage Spaces
- Implement and manage Storage Spaces Direct
- Configure and manage Storage Replica
- Configure Data Deduplication
- Configure SMB direct (SMB over Remote Direct Memory Access [RDMA])
- Configure Storage QoS
- Select and configure file systems, including NTFS and ReFS
- Configure and manage iSCSI
- Manage BitLocker Drive Encryption
- Manage and recover encrypted volumes.
Secure Windows Server infrastructure (10–15%)
Secure Windows Server operating system
- Configure and manage exploit protection
- Configure and manage Application Control for Windows
- Configure and manage Credential Guard
- Configure Microsoft Defender SmartScreen
- Implement operating system security by using Group Policies
- Manage Windows Server security baseline by using OSConfig
- Implement Windows Local Administrator Password Solution
- Configure and manage Defender for Servers
- Manage Windows Firewall, including connection security rules
Secure AD DS
- Configure password policies
- Implement Microsoft Entra Password Protection for AD DS
- Manage protected users
- Harden domain controllers
- Restrict access to domain controllers
- Configure security options for user accounts
- Configure security options for built-in administrative groups
- Manage AD delegation
- Manage authentication protocols and methods for AD DS
Monitor and troubleshoot Windows Server environments (15–20%)
Monitor by using Windows Server tools and Azure services
- Monitor by using Performance Monitor
- Create and configure data collector sets
- Monitor servers and configure alerts by using Windows Admin Center
- Analyze by using the System Insights feature of Windows Server
- Manage event logs
- Configure data collection rules for Azure Monitor
- Create alerts
- Monitor Azure Virtual Machines performance by using VM Insights
Troubleshoot Windows Server issues
- Troubleshoot connectivity issues
- Troubleshoot name resolution
- Troubleshoot Windows Update
- Troubleshoot Time service
- Troubleshoot performance issues
- Troubleshoot VM and Azure Arc extension issues
- Troubleshoot disk encryption issues
- Troubleshoot storage issues
Troubleshoot Active Directory
- Restore objects from AD Recycle Bin
- Recover AD database by using Directory Services Restore Mode
- Recover SYSVOL
- Troubleshoot AD replication
- Troubleshoot on-premises AD
- Troubleshoot Kerberos and authentication issues
- Troubleshoot secure channel and computer account trust issues
