In this lab, you will create an Azure Resource Group, which serves as the foundational container to organize all of the cloud resources you’ll deploy throughout the project. By defining a single resource group, you centralize management, cost tracking, security policies, and lifecycle operations for everything built in this environment. By the end of this lab, you will have established the core building block that will support future labs, ensuring you can administer and monitor all related resources efficiently.
This brief video explains what you’ll deploy, why it matters, and how it fits into the project.
By completing this lab, you will be able to:
The skills you gain in this lab map directly to key objectives in the following Azure certifications:
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Fast lookup for protocols, access tiers, billing, authentication & CLI.
| Account Type | Media | Billing Model |
|---|---|---|
| StorageV2 (GPv2) | HDD | Pay-as-you-go |
| FileStorage (SSD v2) | SSD | Provisioned v2 |
| FileStorage (SSD v1) | SSD | Provisioned v1 |
| FileStorage (HDD v2) | HDD | Provisioned v2 |
| Tier | Type | Latency | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premium (SSD) | SSD | Single-digit ms | I/O intensive, low latency |
| Standard (HDD) | HDD | Higher | General-purpose, cost-effective |
| Tier | Cost Profile | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction Optimized | Lowest tx cost | High transactions (migrations, backups) |
| Hot | Low storage, moderate tx | General-purpose, frequent access |
| Cool | Lower storage, high tx | Infrequent access, cost savings |
| Protocol | Clients | Use |
|---|---|---|
| SMB 3.x | Windows, Linux, macOS | General-purpose file shares |
| NFS 4.1 | Linux only | High-performance, POSIX compliance |
| REST API | App-driven access | Programmatic file operations |
| Model | How Charged | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-as-you-go | Storage used + transactions | Variable/bursty workloads |
| Provisioned v2 | GiB provisioned (not used) | Predictable capacity, performance guarantees |
| Provisioned v1 | GiB provisioned | Legacy; similar to v2 |
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Want to learn about Azure virtual networks? In this quick-hitting explanation, you’ll learn what they are, what they do, and you’ll learn about key Azure vNet features.
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In this 60-second explainer, you’ll learn what Azure Files is and how it provides fully managed file shares in the cloud — accessible via SMB or NFS, across Windows, Linux, and macOS.
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Learn what you need to know to get started with Microsoft Entra ID with this easily-digestible 5-hour bootcamp from best-selling instructor, Thomas Mitchell.
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Fast lookup for subnets, peering, routing, security, DNS & CLI.
| Route Type | Priority |
|---|---|
| System (local) | Highest |
| User-defined (custom) | Medium |
| BGP routes | Low |
| Option | Use Case |
|---|---|
| Azure DNS (168.63.129.16) | Default internal |
| Custom DNS | On-premises or third-party |
| Private DNS Zones | Custom domains in VNet |
This feature is available to labITpro Supporters only.
Fast lookup for orchestration modes, autoscaling, load balancing, updates & CLI.
| Mode | Profile | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Flexible | Standard Azure VMs | New workloads (default) |
| Uniform | Identical VMs | Legacy large-scale workloads |
| Feature | Flexible | Uniform |
|---|---|---|
| Standard VM APIs | Yes | No |
| Mix instance types | Yes | No |
| RBAC per VM | Yes | No |
| Azure Backup | Yes | No |
| Site Recovery | Yes | No |
| Fault domains | 1–3 | 1–5 |
| Type | Layer | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Internal LB | L4 | Backend pools |
| Public LB | L4 | External traffic |
| App Gateway | L7 | HTTP/HTTPS + WAF |
| Policy | Rollout | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic | Batch | App can tolerate disruption |
| Rolling | Controlled | Gradual, managed updates |
| Manual | On-demand | Full control; explicit API calls |
This feature is available to labITpro Supporters only.
Fast lookup for orchestration modes, autoscaling, load balancing, updates & CLI.
| Mode | Profile | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Flexible | Standard Azure VMs | New workloads (default) |
| Uniform | Identical VMs | Legacy large-scale workloads |
| Feature | Flexible | Uniform |
|---|---|---|
| Standard VM APIs | Yes | No |
| Mix instance types | Yes | No |
| RBAC per VM | Yes | No |
| Azure Backup | Yes | No |
| Site Recovery | Yes | No |
| Fault domains | 1–3 | 1–5 |
| Type | Layer | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Internal LB | L4 | Backend pools |
| Public LB | L4 | External traffic |
| App Gateway | L7 | HTTP/HTTPS + WAF |
| Policy | Rollout | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic | Batch | App can tolerate disruption |
| Rolling | Controlled | Gradual, managed updates |
| Manual | On-demand | Full control; explicit API calls |
This feature is available to labITpro Supporters only.
Fast lookup for orchestration modes, autoscaling, load balancing, updates & CLI.
| Mode | Profile | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Flexible | Standard Azure VMs | New workloads (default) |
| Uniform | Identical VMs | Legacy large-scale workloads |
| Feature | Flexible | Uniform |
|---|---|---|
| Standard VM APIs | Yes | No |
| Mix instance types | Yes | No |
| RBAC per VM | Yes | No |
| Azure Backup | Yes | No |
| Site Recovery | Yes | No |
| Fault domains | 1–3 | 1–5 |
| Type | Layer | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Internal LB | L4 | Backend pools |
| Public LB | L4 | External traffic |
| App Gateway | L7 | HTTP/HTTPS + WAF |
| Policy | Rollout | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic | Batch | App can tolerate disruption |
| Rolling | Controlled | Gradual, managed updates |
| Manual | On-demand | Full control; explicit API calls |
Fast lookup for sizes, storage, networking, HA, pricing & CLI.
| Series | Profile | Use |
|---|---|---|
| B | Burstable | Dev/Test |
| D | General | Web/App |
| E | Memory | DB / Analytics |
| F | Compute | Batch / CPU Heavy |
| Ls | Storage IO | NoSQL / Throughput |
| M | High RAM | SAP HANA |
| N | GPU | AI / ML / Rendering |
| Disk | Perf | When |
|---|---|---|
| Standard HDD | Low | Archive / Rare |
| Standard SSD | Medium | General Workloads |
| Premium SSD | High | Production Apps |
| Premium SSD v2 | High+ | Tunable Perf |
| Ultra Disk | Extreme | Critical DB I/O |
Fast lookup for sizes, storage, networking, HA, pricing & CLI.
| Series | Profile | Use |
|---|---|---|
| B | Burstable | Dev/Test |
| D | General | Web/App |
| E | Memory | DB / Analytics |
| F | Compute | Batch / CPU Heavy |
| Ls | Storage IO | NoSQL / Throughput |
| M | High RAM | SAP HANA |
| N | GPU | AI / ML / Rendering |
| Disk | Perf | When |
|---|---|---|
| Standard HDD | Low | Archive / Rare |
| Standard SSD | Medium | General Workloads |
| Premium SSD | High | Production Apps |
| Premium SSD v2 | High+ | Tunable Perf |
| Ultra Disk | Extreme | Critical DB I/O |
Fast lookup for subnets, peering, routing, security, DNS & CLI.
| Route Type | Priority |
|---|---|
| System (local) | Highest |
| User-defined (custom) | Medium |
| BGP routes | Low |
| Option | Use Case |
|---|---|
| Azure DNS (168.63.129.16) | Default internal |
| Custom DNS | On-premises or third-party |
| Private DNS Zones | Custom domains in VNet |
Want to know more about Azure VMs and all their settings? This brief micro-course takes you step by step through every option you’ll encounter when creating a Windows VM in Azure, so you know what it does and when to use it.
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