Azure Advisor recommendations - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What is Azure Advisor?

Azure Advisor is a free service that gives you personalized best practice recommendations to optimize your Azure resources for cost, security, reliability, performance, and operational excellence.

beginner

Name the five categories of recommendations provided by Azure Advisor.

The five categories are: Cost, Security, Reliability, Performance, and Operational Excellence.

beginner

How does Azure Advisor help reduce costs?

Azure Advisor identifies underutilized or idle resources and suggests actions like resizing or shutting down to save money.

intermediate

What type of recommendation would Azure Advisor give to improve reliability?

It might suggest enabling backup, configuring availability zones, or setting up disaster recovery to keep your services running smoothly.

beginner

How can you access Azure Advisor recommendations?

You can access them through the Azure portal, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, or REST API.

Which of the following is NOT a category of Azure Advisor recommendations?

A Cost

B Security

C Marketing

D Performance

Azure Advisor provides recommendations in Cost, Security, Reliability, Performance, and Operational Excellence, but not Marketing.

What does Azure Advisor recommend to improve security?

A Enable multi-factor authentication

B Resize virtual machines

C Set up backup

D Increase CPU cores

Enabling multi-factor authentication is a security best practice recommended by Azure Advisor.

How can you view Azure Advisor recommendations?

A All of the above

B Azure CLI

C Azure PowerShell

D Azure portal

Azure Advisor recommendations can be accessed via Azure portal, CLI, PowerShell, and REST API.

Azure Advisor suggests shutting down idle resources to help with:

A Security

B Cost savings

C Performance

D Operational Excellence

Shutting down idle resources reduces unnecessary spending, helping with cost savings.

Which Azure Advisor recommendation category focuses on keeping your services running without interruption?

A Cost

B Performance

C Security

D Reliability

Reliability recommendations help ensure your services stay available and recover from failures.

Explain what Azure Advisor is and list its main recommendation categories.

Think about how Azure helps you improve your cloud setup.

Describe how Azure Advisor can help you save money on your Azure resources.

Focus on cost optimization recommendations.

Practice

1. What is the main purpose of Azure Advisor?

easy

A. To monitor network traffic in real-time

B. To provide personalized recommendations to optimize your Azure resources

C. To create new Azure resources automatically

D. To manage user access and permissions

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand Azure Advisor's role

   Azure Advisor analyzes your Azure resources and suggests improvements.

2. Step 2: Compare options with Advisor's function

   Only To provide personalized recommendations to optimize your Azure resources matches the purpose of giving personalized recommendations.

3. Final Answer:

   To provide personalized recommendations to optimize your Azure resources -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   Advisor = personalized recommendations [OK]

Hint: Advisor gives tips to improve, not create or monitor [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing Advisor with monitoring tools
• Thinking Advisor manages user permissions
• Assuming Advisor creates resources automatically

2. Which Azure CLI command shows Advisor recommendations for your subscription?

easy

A. az advisor recommendation list

B. az vm list

C. az network watcher show

D. az storage account create

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify command for Advisor recommendations

   The command az advisor recommendation list lists Advisor tips.

2. Step 2: Check other commands' purposes

   Other commands manage VMs, network watcher, or storage, unrelated to Advisor.

3. Final Answer:

   az advisor recommendation list -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Advisor recommendations = az advisor recommendation list [OK]

Hint: Look for 'advisor' in the command for recommendations [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Using VM or storage commands instead of Advisor
• Confusing network watcher with Advisor
• Missing 'recommendation' keyword in command

3. You run az advisor recommendation list --category Performance. What will you see?

medium

A. List of all security alerts

B. Network traffic statistics

C. Details of billing invoices

D. Recommendations to improve your resource performance

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand the command filter

   The command filters Advisor recommendations by the Performance category.

2. Step 2: Match output with options

   Only Recommendations to improve your resource performance describes performance improvement tips, matching the command.

3. Final Answer:

   Recommendations to improve your resource performance -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   Performance category = performance tips [OK]

Hint: Filter by category shows matching recommendations [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Expecting security alerts instead of performance tips
• Confusing billing info with Advisor output
• Thinking network stats appear in Advisor list

4. You tried to run az advisor recommendation list --category cost but got an error. What is a likely cause?

medium

A. The Azure CLI is not installed

B. Your Azure subscription has no resources

C. You misspelled the category name; it should be 'Cost' with capital C

D. The command requires administrator privileges

Solution

1. Step 1: Check category name case sensitivity

   Azure CLI commands often require exact category names; 'cost' should be 'Cost'.

2. Step 2: Evaluate other options

   Subscription without resources or CLI not installed cause different errors; admin rights not needed.

3. Final Answer:

   You misspelled the category name; it should be 'Cost' with capital C -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   Category names are case-sensitive [OK]

Hint: Check exact spelling and case of category names [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Ignoring case sensitivity in command options
• Assuming admin rights are required
• Thinking no resources means no command output error

5. Your company wants to reduce Azure costs and improve security. How can Azure Advisor help you achieve both?

hard

A. By providing cost-saving and security improvement recommendations for your resources

B. By automatically deleting unused resources

C. By increasing the size of all virtual machines

D. By disabling all network traffic temporarily

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify Advisor's recommendation scope

   Azure Advisor gives tips on cost savings and security improvements based on your resource usage.

2. Step 2: Evaluate other options for feasibility

   Advisor does not delete resources, resize VMs automatically, or disable network traffic.

3. Final Answer:

   By providing cost-saving and security improvement recommendations for your resources -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Advisor = cost + security tips [OK]

Hint: Advisor suggests actions; it doesn't change resources automatically [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Thinking Advisor deletes or changes resources automatically
• Confusing Advisor with network management tools
• Assuming Advisor disables services to save costs