By: Daniel Calbimonte | Comments (2) | Related: More > Professional Development Certifications
Problem
I am planning to take the Microsoft 70-765 exam on Provisioning SQL Databases. Do you have tips for preparing for this exam? Can you provide a study guide for the Microsoft 70-765 exam? What are the key technologies that I need to study in order to pass the exam?
Solution
In this tip, we will talk about videos, books and provide some links for related articles and tips. This is one of the core exams for the Microsoft SQL Certification Series.
What is the Microsoft 70-765 certification exam?
This is oriented for DBAs. It is oriented to Azure SQL Database administration and virtual machines in Azure.
Who should take the exam?
This exam is for DBAs, and Database Developers. If you are a developer that requires learning Azure SQL Database administration, this exam is for you.
Is it an exam oriented to SQL Server 2016?
Yes, but it is focused on Azure SQL Databases and Azure virtual machines.
Which SQL Server 2012/2014 exam is similar to this one?
None of the previous exams are similar to this one. This is an entirely new exam.
Is this exam difficult?
We believe that Azure SQL has great documentation. In our opinion, the help is great and you have online support in Azure.
What do I need for this exam?
You will need a local machine with at least SQL Server 2016 Express Edition, which is free. The SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and an Azure Subscription.
I do not have an Azure Subscription. What are the requirements?
You only need a credit card and you can get a free trial with $200 USD of credit. This option is for 30 days. After 30 days, you will need to pay for the Azure Services that are not free. You can continue using free services.
I do not have a credit card, but I want to use the 30 days trial option to play with Azure. What can I do?
Even if you do not pay. You need a credit card for the free trial. You may want to ask someone you know for the credit card.
Are the Azure SQL Services expensive?
The cheapest price is 0.1 USD per hour. For a complete list, you can check here:
Is there another way to have Azure access?
Yes, you can buy a Visual Studio Subscription. It includes access to Microsoft magazines, tools, videos, courses, licenses and of course Azure. Here you have a list of different subscription options:
Which books would you recommend for this exam?
There are some books that may be helpful
- Pro SQL Server on Microsoft Azure is a book that covers many modules of the exam.
- Microsoft Azure Essentials Migrating SQL Server Databases to Azure is a great book for the Deploy and Migrate module of the exam.
- Microsoft Azure SQL Database Step by Step is a great book to start for newbies. The information provided is not enough to pass the exam, but the book is really useful if you are completely lost in the Azure world.
Beware that the Azure world is constantly changing. Some books that are up to date now may be obsolete tomorrow. Make sure to have the latest edition and read the last changes in the Azure SQL world.
Are there some courses for this exam?
- The official course is Course 20765A: Provisioning SQL Databases. This course does not contain many modules related to Azure. Most of the chapters are on-premises chapters.
- Microsoft Azure Training - [44] Azure SQL Database - Part 1 - Introduction (Exam 70-533) is a training related to the 70-533 exam, however this video contain 4 hours that can be useful for some topics of the 70-765 exam.
- MVA: Windows Azure SQL Database is an obsolete course. This course is not recommended. It contains obsolete information.
- Migrating SQL Server Databases to Azure can be useful for the migration module.
- SQL Azure and Azure SQL Database for the SQL Server DBA of Pluralsight contains some of the topics. It is an interesting course.
- Learn How To Become an Azure SQL Database Architect is a good introduction course for Azure SQL. It requires some few updates, but the course is still valid.
- New horizons offers the 20533 Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions course. It contains some sections related to Azure SQL, but it includes other topics.
- Course 20533C: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions in the module 7, contains some topics related to this exam.
Can you provide some links to study?
Gladly, here you have some links:
Implement SQL in Azure
- Deploy a Microsoft Azure SQL Database
- SQL Database Pricing
- SQL Database options and performance: Understand what's available in each service tier
- Quick start tutorial: Your first Azure SQL database
- Comparing Azure SQL Database and SQL Server in a Virtual Machine
- Create a SQL Database on Azure
- Controlling and granting database access
- The new elastic databases in Azure
- What is an Azure SQL elastic pool?
- When should an elastic pool be used?
- Elastic Scale for Microsoft Azure SQL Database
- Plan for SQL Server installation
- What is IaaS?
- Cloud vs On-Premises: Security, Reliability and Uptime
- Choose a cloud SQL Server option: Azure SQL (PaaS) Database or SQL Server on Azure VMs (IaaS)
- Azure SQL Database vs. MS SQL Server on Dedicated Machine
- Sizes for Windows virtual machines in Azure
- Windows Virtual Machines Pricing
- Azure SQL Database vs SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines
- Using Storage Spaces on an Azure VM cluster for SQL Server storage
- Performance best practices for SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines
- Storage configuration for SQL Server VMs
- Best Practices for running a Windows VM on Azure
- Deploy SQL Server instances
- Overview of SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines
- Install SQL Server
- SQL Server 2016 Part 1 - Getting Started and Installing SQL Server 2016 Developer Edition
- SQL Server in an Azure VM - What's New
- How to use PowerShell to create a SQL Virtual Machine in Azure
- Practical PowerShell for SQL Server Developers and DBAs Part 1
- Create a Windows virtual machine with PowerShell and the classic deployment model
- Creating Azure automation to start Azure VMs
- Install SQL Server 2016 Using a Configuration File
- Provision a SQL Server virtual machine in the Azure Portal
Manage databases and instances
- Configure secure access to Microsoft Azure SQL Databases
- Create and manage Azure SQL Database server-level firewall rules using the Azure portal
- Always Encrypted: Protect sensitive data in SQL Database and store your encryption keys in the Windows certificate store
- Always Encrypted (Database Engine)
- Recommendations for using Cell Level Encryption in Azure SQL Database
- Encrypt a Column of Data
- SQL Database dynamic data masking
- Configure SQL Server performance settings
- SQL Server Best Practices, Part I: Configuration
- Server Memory Server Configuration Options
- Server Configuration Options (SQL Server)
- How to setup SQL Server alerts and email operator notifications
- SQL Server Agent
- Create a Database
- SQL Server tempdb best practices increase performance
- Optimizing tempdb Performance
- Database Files and Filegroups
- File Locations for Default and Named Instances of SQL Server
Deploy and migrate applications
- Deploy and migrate applications
- Microsoft Azure Essentials Migrating SQL Server Databases to Azure
- SQL Server database migration to SQL Database in the cloud
- Getting Started with Azure SQL Data Sync (Preview)
- Migrating Data to SQL Azure Using SSIS
- Move data from an on-premise SQL server to SQL Azure with Azure Data Factory
- Copy an Azure SQL database using PowerShell
- Deploy applications to SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines
- How to export a local table to an Azure VM
- Azure SQL Database benchmark overview
- Monitoring database performance in Azure SQL Database
- Azure availability sets guidelines
- Migrate client applications
- SQL Azure connection strings
- How to connect our C# application in Azure
- Network Performance Monitor (Preview) solution in OMS
- Entity Framework Connection Resiliency and Retry Logic (EF6 onwards)
- Retry service specific guidance
- Microsoft Azure - Moving Your Applications to Microsoft Azure
- Microsoft Azure - Tips for Migrating Your Applications to the Cloud
- SQL Database Advisor
- SQL Database Performance Insight
Next Steps
There are several links that will be useful to you:
About the author
Daniel Calbimonte is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP, Microsoft Certified Trainer and 6-time Microsoft Certified IT Professional. Daniel started his career in 2001 and has worked with SQL Server 6.0 to 2022. Daniel is a DBA as well as specializes in Business Intelligence (SSIS, SSAS, SSRS) technologies.This author pledges the content of this article is based on professional experience and not AI generated.
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