AZ-802 study resources
The best AZ-802 resources are free: Microsoft’s study guide, the Windows Server and Azure documentation for each objective, evaluation copies of Windows Server for a lab, and an Azure subscription for the hybrid parts. Add realistic practice questions to find your weak domain. The one thing to be careful with is the large body of AZ-800 and AZ-801 material: much of it is still accurate, but a good share covers topics AZ-802 dropped.
Start with the official material
The study guide. Seven domains, from 10–15% to 20–25%, with AD DS the largest. It lists every objective and links to the relevant documentation. Read it before anything else and keep it open while you study.
The instructor-led course. Microsoft lists an instructor-led course, Administer Windows Server, for AZ-802. At the time of writing its certification page lists no self-paced training specific to this exam, so check Microsoft Learn for new learning paths before you plan.
The Windows Server documentation. For each technology in the outline — AD DS, Group Policy, Hyper-V, DNS, DHCP, DFS, FSRM, Storage Spaces Direct, Storage Replica, Data Deduplication, BitLocker, Windows LAPS, OSConfig and App Control for Business — the how-to articles are the best study material there is. The exam is written against the behaviour they describe.
The Azure documentation. Azure Arc-enabled servers, machine configuration, Azure Update Manager, Azure Automation and Hybrid Runbook Workers, Azure Files and File Sync, Azure DNS Private Resolver, Azure Monitor Agent and data collection rules, VM insights, and Defender for Servers.
The exam sandbox. It shows the interface and question types in ten minutes. There is no official practice assessment for AZ-802 yet.
Using AZ-800 and AZ-801 material
Courses, books and videos for the old exams are plentiful and often good. Use them selectively:
| Keep | Skip |
|---|---|
| AD DS, Group Policy, service accounts | Entra Connect, Cloud Sync, Entra Domain Services |
| Windows Admin Center, remoting, JEA, Arc, Update Manager | Containers and AKS |
| Hyper-V, Hyper-V Replica, Azure VMs | Guarded fabric and shielded VMs |
| DNS and DHCP | IPAM, Remote Access, VPN, NPS, Web Application Proxy |
| File services, Azure Files and File Sync | BranchCache |
| OS and AD security | Defender for Identity, Sentinel, Azure Disk Encryption |
| Monitoring and AD troubleshooting | Clustering, Azure Backup, Site Recovery, migration |
Check that anything you use covers the newer objectives too: OSConfig baselines, Windows LAPS, SMB over QUIC, GPU partitioning and Kerberos troubleshooting.
Lab work is the differentiator
AZ-802 describes a configuration and asks what is wrong, missing or best. Six labs cover most of it:
- Build a forest. Two sites with subnets and a site link schedule, an RODC with a replication policy, a gMSA, a second forest with a selective trust, and a GPO with loopback processing.
- Manage it from Azure. Arc-enable two servers with a service principal, assign a machine configuration policy, patch with Update Manager, run a runbook on a Hybrid Runbook Worker, and open a server in Windows Admin Center in the portal.
- Run Hyper-V properly. Nested virtualization, PowerShell Direct, production checkpoints, a SET switch, guest NIC teaming, and Hyper-V Replica with a test failover.
- Resolve and address. AD-integrated zones, a conditional forwarder to an Azure private zone through Private Resolver, a split-brain DNS policy, a signed zone, and DHCP failover in hot standby.
- Serve files. A DFS namespace, FSRM quotas and screens, File Sync with cloud tiering, deduplication, an iSCSI LUN, and BitLocker with recovery keys in AD.
- Harden, break and fix. OSConfig baseline, Windows LAPS, App Control in audit mode, Protected Users; then restore a deleted user with and without the Recycle Bin, rebuild SYSVOL, repair a secure channel and fix a time source.
Evaluation copies of Windows Server run for 180 days, which is enough for the whole preparation. Stop Azure VMs when you are not using them.
Worth paying for
Practice tests written against the current AZ-802 outline. Their value is diagnosis: they show which domain is weakest while there is still time to fix it, which matters more while the official practice assessment is missing. The free 20-question test here is weighted like the real exam and is a good first check.
Lab hardware or Azure credit. A host with 32 GB of memory runs the whole lab comfortably. Without one, a nested-virtualization VM in Azure works, paid by the hour.
What to avoid
Unfiltered old courses. A course that spends a third of its time on clustering, migration and Site Recovery is preparing you for a different exam.
Braindumps. They break Microsoft’s exam agreement, risk revocation of every certification you hold, and do not help with scenario questions.
Console-only study. The exam uses PowerShell. Know the cmdlets for the main tasks.
A sensible order
- Read the study guide and take the sample questions cold.
- Work through the domains with the documentation and the labs above, following the four-week study plan.
- Take the practice test and find your weakest domain.
- Go back to that domain’s documentation and repeat its lab.
- Book once you score 80% or more on realistic questions twice in a row.
Is this the right exam?
If you administer Windows Server and do not already hold the certification, yes. If you mainly administer Azure itself, AZ-104 fits better. See is AZ-802 worth it? for who benefits most.