AZ-802 vs AZ-800 and AZ-801
AZ-802 replaces both AZ-800 and AZ-801. From 30 September 2026, when Microsoft retires the two older exams, AZ-802 is the only exam that earns the Windows Server administrator certification. It is not a merger of everything the pair covered: Microsoft kept the day-to-day administration and security topics, and dropped containers, migration, clustering as a separate domain, backup and disaster recovery, and hybrid identity synchronisation.
The exams side by side
| AZ-800 | AZ-801 | AZ-802 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exam title | Administering Windows Server Hybrid Core Infrastructure | Configuring Windows Server Hybrid Advanced Services | Administering Windows Server |
| Status | Retires 30 September 2026 | Retires 30 September 2026 | Current |
| Earns the certification | Only together with AZ-801 | Only together with AZ-800 | On its own |
| Domains | 5 | 5 | 7 |
| Passing score | 700 | 700 | 700 |
| Languages | 7 | 10 | English only |
The certification is being renamed at the same time: Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate becomes Windows Server Administrator Associate.
Where the domains went
| AZ-802 domain | Weight | Came from |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy and manage AD DS | 20–25% | AZ-800 AD DS domain (30–35%), without hybrid identity |
| Manage Windows Server instances and workloads in a hybrid environment | 10–15% | AZ-800, almost unchanged |
| Manage virtual machines | 10–15% | AZ-800, without containers; Hyper-V Replica from AZ-801 |
| Implement and manage an on-premises and hybrid networking infrastructure | 10–15% | AZ-800, reduced to DNS and DHCP |
| Manage storage and file services | 15–20% | AZ-800, plus Storage Spaces Direct and BitLocker |
| Secure Windows Server infrastructure | 10–15% | AZ-801 security domain (25–30%), trimmed |
| Monitor and troubleshoot Windows Server environments | 15–20% | AZ-801, with Kerberos and secure channel troubleshooting added |
What was dropped
These areas were in the old exams and are not in the AZ-802 outline:
- Hybrid identity: Microsoft Entra Connect Sync, Cloud Sync, Connect Health, Microsoft Entra Domain Services and staged rollout.
- Containers: container hosts and images, container networking, and AKS on Windows Server.
- Guarded fabric and shielded VMs.
- Remote access: the Remote Access role, VPN, NPS, Web Application Proxy, Azure Network Adapter, Azure extended network, Azure Relay and Microsoft Entra Private Access.
- IPAM and BranchCache.
- Failover clustering as its own domain: quorum, Network ATC, cluster-aware updating, Scale-Out File Server and cluster witnesses.
- Disaster recovery: Azure Backup, Azure Backup Server and Azure Site Recovery.
- Migration: Storage Migration Service, Azure Migrate, in-place upgrades, IIS and AD forest migration.
- Cloud security services: Microsoft Defender for Identity, Microsoft Sentinel, NSGs and Azure Disk Encryption.
That is a lot of material you no longer need. It also means older courses, even good ones, spend a large share of their time on topics AZ-802 will not ask about.
What is new or more prominent
- Hyper-V Replica moves into the VM domain, next to checkpoints, nested virtualization and GPU partitioning.
- Storage Spaces Direct and BitLocker move into the storage domain.
- Microsoft Defender for Servers and Windows Firewall with connection security rules sit in the security domain.
- Troubleshooting Kerberos and authentication, and secure channel and computer account trust issues, are new Active Directory troubleshooting objectives.
- Authentication protocols and methods for AD DS replace the narrower NTLM auditing objective.
Microsoft’s own announcement highlights OSConfig security baselines, SMB over QUIC, Microsoft Entra Password Protection and GPU partitioning as updated coverage, alongside hybrid management with Azure Arc, Azure Update Manager and Azure Monitor.
If you passed one of the old exams
Microsoft’s announcement says that, from September 2026, earning the certification requires AZ-802. It does not describe a way to combine a pass on AZ-800 or AZ-801 with a later exam. If you passed only one of them and cannot sit the other before 30 September 2026, plan for AZ-802. Check your Microsoft Learn profile and ask Microsoft’s credentials support if your case is unusual.
If you already hold the certification
No action is needed. The certification stays, and it takes the new name once AZ-802 is live. You renew it as before, through the free online assessment, which will cover the new skills. You can take AZ-802 anyway, but passing it resets your expiry date to one year from the pass rather than extending the current one.
Is AZ-802 harder than the old pair?
It is one exam instead of two, so the total amount of material is smaller. Per exam, it is broader: seven domains in 120 minutes, and every one of them was a full domain on an older exam. Candidates who studied for AZ-800 have a head start on four domains; those who studied for AZ-801 know security and troubleshooting. See is AZ-802 hard? for the detail, and the four-week study plan for an order that works.