Free Online Course · Self-paced · Hands-on

Microsoft Azure Tutorial for Beginners (Hands-On)

Free hands-on Microsoft Azure tutorial for beginners: Entra ID, VMs, App Service, AKS, Blob Storage, VPN, Front Door, ARM templates, and cost control.

  • 10 chapters
  • 31 lessons
  • ~15h
  • Beginner to Intermediate
  • Tested with Azure portal
  • Updated Sep 2026
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Microsoft Azure Tutorial for Beginners (Hands-On)
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About this course

This free course covers the Azure services most organisations start with: identity in Microsoft Entra ID, virtual machines, App Service and AKS, storage and backup, managed databases, hybrid networking, serverless, governance, and infrastructure as code. Each lesson builds the resource in a real subscription, and the Azure documentation on Microsoft Learn stays the reference for limits and options.

The course starts with identity because every Azure permission, subscription, and resource group decision traces back to the users and groups in your Entra ID tenant. Getting that part right first saves you from reworking role assignments later. The networking chapter then covers both directions of traffic: point-to-site and site-to-site VPN for reaching an on-premises network, and Application Gateway, WAF, and Front Door for publishing web apps to the internet.

If you are new to Azure, start with the Entra ID basics lesson and go in order. If you already run workloads there, jump to the chapter you need. Storage and Backup, Networking, and Governance and Cost each stand on their own.

What you'll learn

  • Create users and groups in Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) and see how identity controls access to everything else
  • Create VMs from the portal, Azure CLI, and PowerShell, deploy web apps on App Service, and run an application on AKS
  • Store data in Blob Storage and Azure Files, add lifecycle rules, and protect workloads with Azure Backup and Site Recovery
  • Deploy Azure SQL Database, Azure Database for MySQL and PostgreSQL, and Cosmos DB
  • Connect networks with point-to-site and site-to-site VPN, and publish apps through Application Gateway, WAF, and Front Door
  • Build an Azure Function in Visual Studio and automate workflows with Logic Apps
  • Govern subscriptions with tags, resource locks, Azure Policy, and Cost Management
  • Deploy infrastructure from ARM templates and Ansible, and release a web app through Azure DevOps

Who this course is for

  • Windows and Linux administrators moving on-premises servers, file shares, and databases into Azure
  • AWS or Google Cloud engineers who need the Azure names and portal paths for services they already know
  • DevOps engineers who deploy to App Service or AKS and need the identity and networking pieces around them
  • Anyone working toward an Azure administrator role who wants portal practice with the core services

Prerequisites

  • An Azure free account ($200 credit for 30 days plus 12 months of free amounts for 20+ services) or a pay-as-you-go subscription
  • A phone number, a non-prepaid credit or debit card, and a Microsoft or GitHub account to sign up
  • Basic networking (IP ranges, subnets, DNS) and comfort with a command line
  • Ansible basics help for the Ansible provisioning lesson, but the rest of the course needs no other tools

Versions and testing environment

Every command in this course was run on this stack

ComponentVersionNotes
Azure portal — Most lessons were written in the portal between 2023 and 2024. Menu names and default settings may have moved since, so check the Microsoft Learn page for a service if a screen looks different
Microsoft Entra ID — Called Azure Active Directory in the identity lessons, which were written before Microsoft renamed it in 2023. The steps are the same
Azure Cloud Shell — Runs the Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell examples in the VM lesson with nothing installed locally
Azure CLI 2.28.0 Installed on a CentOS 7 control node in the Ansible provisioning lesson. Use Microsoft's current package on a supported distribution instead

Syllabus

10 chapters · 31 lessons · ~15h of reading

  1. 1 Azure Active Directory (Identity Foundations) 3 lessons · ~25 min
    1. Part 1 Azure Active Directory basics explained 8 min read
    2. Part 2 Create Azure AD users 9 min read
    3. Part 3 Create and manage Azure AD groups 8 min read
  2. 2 Compute - VMs and App Service 3 lessons · ~20 min
    1. Part 4 Create an Azure VM step by step 10 min read
    2. Part 5 Azure App Service tutorial 5 min read
    3. Part 6 Install RabbitMQ on an Azure VM 5 min read
  3. 3 Containers - AKS 1 lesson · ~7 min
    1. Part 7 Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) tutorial 7 min read
  4. 4 Storage and Backup 6 lessons · ~1h 6m
    1. Part 8 Azure Blob Storage tutorial 13 min read
    2. Part 9 Blob Storage lifecycle management 10 min read
    3. Part 10 Azure File Share - SMB cloud shares 9 min read
    4. Part 11 Azure File Sync - hybrid file shares 11 min read
    5. Part 12 Azure Backup tutorial 18 min read
    6. Part 13 Azure Site Recovery (ASR) 5 min read
  5. 5 Databases 4 lessons · ~20 min
    1. Part 14 Deploy a SQL Database on Azure 5 min read
    2. Part 15 Azure Database for MySQL deployment 5 min read
    3. Part 16 Azure Database for PostgreSQL deployment 5 min read
    4. Part 17 Deploy Azure Cosmos DB 5 min read
  6. 6 Networking 5 lessons · ~27 min
    1. Part 18 Configure a Point-to-Site VPN 6 min read
    2. Part 19 Site-to-Site VPN tutorial 6 min read
    3. Part 20 Deploy Azure Application Gateway 5 min read
    4. Part 21 Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) tutorial 5 min read
    5. Part 22 Azure Front Door tutorial 5 min read
  7. 7 Serverless and Integration 2 lessons · ~12 min
    1. Part 23 Create an Azure Function in Visual Studio 7 min read
    2. Part 24 Azure Logic Apps tutorial 5 min read
  8. 8 Governance and Cost 4 lessons · ~35 min
    1. Part 25 Azure resource tags - examples 8 min read
    2. Part 26 Azure resource locks - examples 10 min read
    3. Part 27 Azure Policy - examples and use cases 8 min read
    4. Part 28 Azure Cost Management 9 min read
  9. 9 Infrastructure as Code 2 lessons · ~21 min
    1. Part 29 Azure ARM templates explained 10 min read
    2. Part 30 Provision Azure resources with Ansible 11 min read
  10. 10 CI/CD with Azure DevOps 1 lesson · ~5 min
    1. Part 31 Deploy a web app with an Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline 5 min read

Hands-on labs

6 guided builds you run yourself

  1. Create a virtual machine three ways

    Build the same VM from the portal, from the Azure CLI in Cloud Shell, and from Azure PowerShell, then connect to it.

  2. Deploy an AKS cluster and run an application

    Create an AKS cluster, configure its networking, attach Azure Container Registry, connect from VS Code, and deploy an app.

  3. Connect a network to Azure with site-to-site VPN

    Create a virtual network, gateway subnet, virtual network gateway, and local network gateway, then bring up the connection.

  4. Put Application Gateway in front of a web app

    Deploy Application Gateway, walk through its listeners, rules, and back-end pools, and monitor it from the portal.

  5. Deploy a VM from an ARM template

    Read the parameters, variables, resources, and outputs sections of a template, then deploy a VM from it in the portal.

  6. Release a web app through Azure DevOps

    Create an App Service web app, turn on continuous integration, and deploy changes with an Azure DevOps pipeline.

Where to go after this course

  • Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104)Microsoft's administrator certification covers identity, storage, compute, networking, and monitoring, the same ground as this course.
  • Azure documentationCurrent portal steps and limits for every service, for the places where a lesson's screenshots have aged.
  • Terraform Associate courseDefine Azure resources in provider-neutral HCL once ARM templates feel verbose.
  • Kubernetes courseLearn the Kubernetes side of AKS, from Pods and Services to storage and upgrades.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Azure Active Directory the same as Microsoft Entra ID?

Yes. Microsoft renamed Azure Active Directory to Microsoft Entra ID in 2023, and the capabilities did not change. The Free, P1, and P2 plans became Microsoft Entra ID Free, P1, and P2. The identity lessons in this course use the older name because they were written before the rename, but the concepts and most portal steps are the same. Microsoft's Entra ID rename page lists every name change.

What does the Azure free account include?

New customers get a $200 credit to use within 30 days, 12 months of free monthly amounts for more than 20 popular services, and more than 65 services that are always free up to a monthly limit. The free account will not charge your card. After 30 days, or once the credit is used up, you have to move to pay-as-you-go to keep going, or the account and its services are disabled. Check the current offer on the Azure account page before you sign up.

Which Azure certification matches this course?

The closest match is Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate, earned with exam AZ-104. It assesses identity and governance, storage, compute, virtual networking, and monitoring, and Microsoft gives you 100 minutes for the exam. The certification has to be renewed every 12 months with a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn. Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) is the entry-level option if you are new to cloud. Confirm the current details on the AZ-104 certification page.

Should I learn ARM templates or Bicep?

Learn to read ARM templates, then write new code in Bicep. Bicep is Microsoft's declarative language for Azure resources, and the Bicep CLI converts each file into an ARM JSON template at deployment, so anything valid in a template is valid in Bicep. The syntax is much shorter and handles most dependencies for you. The ARM template lesson here explains the parameters, variables, resources, and outputs sections that both formats share. The Bicep overview shows the two side by side.

How do I keep an Azure practice subscription from costing money?

Create each lab in its own resource group and delete the resource group when you finish, because that removes everything inside it in one step. VPN gateways, Application Gateway, AKS node pools, and database servers charge by the hour whether or not anything uses them. Check Microsoft Cost Management in the portal after each lab, and set a budget alert there. The Cost Management lesson in this course walks through budgets.

Deepak Prasad

R&D Engineer

Founder of GoLinuxCloud with 15+ years of expertise in Linux, Python, Go, Laravel, DevOps, Kubernetes, Git, Shell scripting, OpenShift, AWS, Networking, and Security. With extensive experience, he excels across development, DevOps, networking, and security, delivering robust and efficient solutions for diverse projects.

Expertise
  • Go (programming language)
  • Python (programming language)
  • DevOps
  • Computer Security
  • Cloud Computing
  • Kubernetes
  • Linux
  • Ansible (software)