AZ-120: Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty Practice Exam
Cover every domain on Microsoft’s current AZ-120 skills outline — migrating SAP workloads, designing SAP infrastructure on Azure, high availability and disaster recovery, and ongoing maintenance — with scenario-based questions, source-linked explanations to Microsoft Learn, and full timed simulation in Exam mode.
Start 24-hour free trial →AZ-120 exam at a glance
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Exam code
- AZ-120
- Certification
- Microsoft Certified: Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty
- Level
- Specialty (role-based)
- Blueprint
- Skills Measured outline updated April 17, 2026 (four domains); verify current edition before publish
- Format
- 40–60 questions; multiple choice, multiple response, drag-and-drop, and case studies
- Duration
- Approximately 120 minutes seat time (verify on Microsoft’s exam page)
- Passing score
- 700 of 1000 (scaled)
- Delivery
- Pearson VUE test center or online proctored (OnVUE)
- Prerequisites
- None enforced. Microsoft strongly recommends holding the Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) certification, plus deep SAP (HANA, NetWeaver, Business Suite) experience.
- Cost (USD)
- $165 USD (regional pricing varies)
- Validity
- 1 year; renew free via an online assessment on Microsoft Learn
Sources: Microsoft — Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty certification · AZ-120 Study Guide (Skills measured, updated April 17, 2026). Verify current details with Microsoft before scheduling.
About the AZ-120 Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty certification
AZ-120 is Microsoft’s Specialty certification for architects and engineers who design and run the SAP landscape on Azure. It validates that you can plan and execute SAP migrations, design SAP-certified Azure infrastructure, engineer high availability and disaster recovery for HANA and SAP Central Services, and keep the landscape performant and cost-optimized over time. This is a niche, senior exam: it assumes deep SAP knowledge (HANA, NetWeaver, Business Suite) combined with strong Azure infrastructure and networking skills, and increasingly covers RISE with SAP integration.
Microsoft refreshed the AZ-120 skills outline on April 17, 2026, and the structure changed: the exam now has four domains, not five. The old “Configure SAP on Azure Storage and Networking” domain was folded into the infrastructure domain, storage and networking becoming sub-topics there, and “Maintain SAP workloads” rose to 20–25%. Microsoft also strengthened the recommendation to hold AZ-104 first, and added SAP Deployment Automation Framework and Azure Center for SAP solutions coverage. If you’re studying from a five-domain outline, it is out of date.
Every PowerKram practice question maps to one of the four current domains and links to the specific Microsoft Learn page it was derived from, so your weak spots become a reading list rather than a guess. For broader context on the cloud-architecture skills AZ-120 tests, see our IT certification study guides in the Learning Hub.
AZ-120 exam domains and weights (April 2026 outline)
Four domains, with Migration and Infrastructure tied as the heaviest. The ranges are Microsoft’s; actual exam composition varies within the bands. Plan your study time roughly in proportion to these weights.
Target-infrastructure sizing and requirements; migration strategy and tooling (lift-and-shift through lift-shift-migrate to HANA); the Azure environment to support SAP (access control, governance, landing zones); and integration with RISE with SAP.
SAP-certified VM selection and the Azure VM extension for SAP; IaC deployment with Bicep/ARM, the SAP Deployment Automation Framework, and Azure Center for SAP solutions; SAP networking (proximity placement groups, Accelerated Networking, ExpressRoute); and storage (Premium SSD v2, Write Accelerator, Azure NetApp Files).
HA for SAP on Azure VMs (availability sets and zones, load balancing, Pacemaker/STONITH clustering for HANA and SCS); storage-level replication; and DR strategy with Azure Site Recovery, regional design, backups, and DR testing.
Performance and cost optimization (Azure Advisor, Savings Plans/Reserved Instances, right-sizing, archiving); and monitoring and maintenance with Azure Monitor, Azure Monitor for SAP solutions, Azure Backup, and Azure Center for SAP solutions.
Source: Microsoft AZ-120 Study Guide — skills measured, updated April 17, 2026. The April 2026 outline consolidated the earlier five-domain structure into four: storage and networking are now sub-topics of the infrastructure domain, and the Maintain domain weight rose to 20–25%.
Who AZ-120 is for
AZ-120 is aimed at experienced SAP-on-Azure practitioners — a senior, niche audience that Microsoft expects to already hold Azure administration skills. Microsoft strongly recommends the AZ-104 Associate certification as a foundation:
- SAP on Azure architects designing SAP landscapes, landing zones, and RISE with SAP integrations on Azure.
- SAP Basis administrators moving to cloud who run HANA and NetWeaver and need to prove they can operate them on Azure infrastructure.
- Cloud migration specialists planning and executing SAP migrations, including heterogeneous moves to HANA.
- Infrastructure engineers engineering HA/DR (Pacemaker clustering, Azure Site Recovery) and performance for mission-critical SAP.
Because this is a Specialty exam built on Azure fundamentals, most candidates take AZ-104 Azure Administrator first, and often AZ-305 alongside. For the roles AZ-120 carries genuine resume value in — including salary ranges and progression paths — see our solution architect career paths in the Career Hub.
What this AZ-120 practice exam delivers
Learn mode
Get the correct answer, the reasoning, and a direct link to the exact Microsoft Learn page each question was derived from — immediately after each question. Best for the HADR and migration domains, where scenario constraints (RPO, RTO, downtime windows) drive the correct architecture.
Exam mode
Scenario-based questions on a timer that mirrors the real AZ-120 format. Build the pacing for the multi-constraint SAP architecture cases the exam is known for.
Source-linked explanations
Every answer cites the exact Microsoft Learn page (learn.microsoft.com/azure/sap/…) the question was built from — so you can verify and dig deeper into the SAP-on-Azure documentation, not just memorize.
Score by AZ-120 domain
Results break down by the four current domains — Migrate, Infrastructure, HADR, and Maintain — so practice tells you exactly which SAP-on-Azure area to revisit.
Sample AZ-120 practice questions
Ten free questions across the four current AZ-120 domains, with full explanations and source links to the Microsoft Learn pages each is derived from. The complete bank is available with the 24-hour trial.
A manufacturer migrates SAP ECC to Azure with a 48-hour window for an 8 TB database requiring minimal downtime. Which migration approach minimizes downtime?
- SAP HANA System Replication with continuous sync and a brief final-cutover switchover window
- Azure Site Recovery providing full VM replication with periodic consistency checkpoints
- Offline database backup to Azure Blob Storage followed by a sequential restore to the target VM
- SAP transaction-based export using standard SAP tools followed by a full import on the Azure system
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — SAP HANA System Replication with a final sync cutover. HSR replicates continuously to the Azure target and cuts over with a brief final sync, holding downtime to minutes rather than hours.
Why not the others: Azure Site Recovery (B) replicates whole VMs but is not optimized for SAP database transaction consistency; an offline backup/restore of 8 TB (C) would likely exceed the 48-hour window; transaction-based export/import (D) is far too slow for a large database.
Source: Microsoft Learn — SAP HANA System Replication → Further reading: PowerKram — SAP migration architecture →A systems integrator must deploy many consistent SAP landing zones on Azure — VMs, networking, storage, and OS configuration — repeatably across several customer subscriptions, minimizing manual steps. Which approach fits best?
- Manually build each landing zone in the Azure portal and document the steps in a runbook
- Use the SAP Deployment Automation Framework to codify and repeatably deploy the SAP infrastructure and system configuration
- Clone an existing VM image to each subscription and hand-edit network settings afterward
- Write a one-off shell script per customer that provisions resources with the Azure CLI
Show answer & explanation
Correct: B — the SAP Deployment Automation Framework. The framework codifies SAP infrastructure and configuration as reusable automation, giving consistent, repeatable landing-zone deployments across subscriptions with minimal manual work.
Why not the others: manual portal builds (A) do not scale and drift; image cloning with hand-edits (C) reintroduces manual error; one-off per-customer scripts (D) are not maintainable or consistent across many landscapes.
Source: Microsoft Learn — SAP on Azure automation →A retailer must assess an SAP landscape for Azure migration, determining VM sizing, storage, and bandwidth needs. Which toolset should perform this assessment?
- SAP Quick Sizer for workload requirements, mapped by Azure Center for SAP solutions to appropriate SKUs
- Azure Advisor providing optimization recommendations for existing Azure-hosted SAP resources
- Azure Migrate discovery and assessment appliance scanning the on-premises server environment
- Azure Pricing Calculator configured with estimated VM sizes and storage based on current specs
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — SAP Quick Sizer plus Azure Center for SAP solutions. Quick Sizer calculates hardware requirements from SAP workload characteristics, and Azure Center for SAP solutions maps them to appropriate Azure VM sizes and storage.
Why not the others: Azure Pricing Calculator (D) estimates cost but does not size by workload; Azure Migrate (C) does general VM discovery but lacks SAP-specific sizing; Azure Advisor (B) optimizes existing resources, not pre-migration sizing.
Source: Microsoft Learn — Azure Center for SAP solutions →An energy company performs a heterogeneous migration from SAP on Oracle to SAP on HANA in Azure. Which SAP tool handles this heterogeneous database migration?
- Database Migration Option (DMO) with System Move via Software Update Manager, combining the steps
- SAP HANA System Replication configured for cross-database-engine synchronization
- Azure Database Migration Service with a custom project targeting HANA
- Oracle Data Pump export followed by a manual HANA import using data-loading tools
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — DMO with System Move. DMO with System Move combines Unicode conversion, database migration to HANA, and system relocation in one coordinated procedure for heterogeneous migrations.
Why not the others: HSR (B) only works HANA-to-HANA and cannot replicate from Oracle; Azure Database Migration Service (C) does not support SAP-specific migration paths or metadata; Oracle Data Pump (D) cannot export directly to a HANA-compatible format without transformation.
Source: Microsoft Learn — SAP DBMS migration guidance → Further reading: PowerKram — database migration roles →An auto company designs infrastructure for a 4 TB SAP HANA production system requiring sub-millisecond storage latency. Which storage solution should be selected for the HANA data volumes?
- Azure Premium SSD v2 managed disks with independently provisioned IOPS and throughput
- Azure Blob Storage with NFS v3 protocol access mounted to the VM host
- Azure Files Premium tier with SMB 3.0 configured for the database mount
- Azure Standard HDD managed disks with host-level read caching enabled
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — Premium SSD v2. Premium SSD v2 delivers consistent low latency with independently provisioned IOPS and throughput for HANA data volumes.
Why not the others: Standard HDD (D) cannot meet sub-millisecond latency even with caching; Blob with NFS (B) targets unstructured data, not database volumes; Azure Files Premium (C) provides file shares, not the block-level performance HANA needs.
Source: Microsoft Learn — HANA storage on Azure VMs → Further reading: PowerKram — Azure storage performance →A pharma company deploys SAP needing app-to-database latency below 0.5 ms between the application and database tiers. Which Azure feature achieves low-latency inter-tier networking?
- Azure Virtual WAN with optimized hub-spoke routing topology
- Availability Zones distributing VMs across physically separate datacenters
- Proximity Placement Groups co-locating VMs within the same datacenter physical cluster
- Azure ExpressRoute Global Reach connecting regions through the Microsoft backbone
Show answer & explanation
Correct: C — Proximity Placement Groups. PPGs keep VMs physically close within a datacenter, minimizing latency between the application and database tiers.
Why not the others: ExpressRoute Global Reach (D) connects on-premises/regions, not intra-Azure VM placement; Availability Zones (B) deliberately spread resources apart, which can raise inter-tier latency; Virtual WAN (A) optimizes wide-area connectivity, not intra-datacenter proximity.
Source: Microsoft Learn — Proximity placement for SAP →A logistics company needs SAP HANA with 12 TB of memory exceeding any single standard Azure VM capacity. Which solution supports this memory requirement?
- Multiple M-series VMs configured in a HANA scale-out distributed cluster
- An SAP-certified large-memory M-series VM sized for the workload, or a HANA scale-out cluster where supported
- Standard D-series VMs with extended swap space configured on Ultra Disk
- Azure Ultra Disk volumes attached to compensate for lower available VM memory
Show answer & explanation
Correct: B — an SAP-certified large-memory M-series VM (or a supported HANA scale-out cluster). Azure’s SAP-certified large-memory M-series VMs support multi-terabyte HANA in a single node, and HANA scale-out distributes across nodes where the workload supports it. Choose the certified option that meets the memory requirement.
Why not the others: a plain M-series scale-out (A) can work but the certified VM SKU and support matrix must be checked first; D-series VMs (C) lack the memory and swap cannot substitute for RAM; Ultra Disk (D) improves storage, not system memory. (Note: HANA on Azure Large Instances is being retired, so new designs use SAP-certified VMs.)
Source: Microsoft Learn — HANA on Azure VMs →A bank requires HANA production with automatic failover, RPO = 0, and RTO under 2 minutes within the same region. Which HA configuration meets these requirements?
- Azure Backup with hourly application-consistent snapshots and quick restore
- Azure Site Recovery with 15-minute replication intervals and orchestrated recovery plans
- Asynchronous HANA System Replication to a secondary node in a different availability zone
- Synchronous HANA System Replication with a Pacemaker cluster managing automatic failover
Show answer & explanation
Correct: D — synchronous HSR with a Pacemaker cluster. Synchronous HSR writes to both primary and secondary before acknowledging (RPO = 0), and Pacemaker provides automatic failover with an RTO under two minutes.
Why not the others: Azure Backup snapshots (A) cannot achieve RPO = 0 due to the capture interval; asynchronous replication (C) allows data loss; Azure Site Recovery (B) has higher RPO/RTO than dedicated HANA replication.
Source: Microsoft Learn — SAP HANA high availability → Further reading: PowerKram — HA/DR architecture →A telco needs DR against a full region outage. They accept 15 minutes of data loss and a 4-hour RTO. Which DR approach should be implemented?
- Azure Traffic Manager DNS failover routing users to a cold standby environment on demand
- Asynchronous HANA System Replication to a secondary node in a paired Azure region
- Geo-redundant storage replication enabled on all managed disks backing the SAP system
- Active-active SAP deployment running identical production workloads in both regions
Show answer & explanation
Correct: B — asynchronous HSR to a paired region. Async HSR replicates continuously with a slight delay, meeting the 15-minute RPO and enabling recovery within four hours.
Why not the others: active-active SAP (D) is extremely complex and not standard for most deployments; GRS (C) replicates storage blobs but does not guarantee SAP database transactional consistency; Traffic Manager (A) routes DNS but needs a running target, which a cold standby may not provide within the RTO.
Source: Microsoft Learn — DR overview for SAP workloads →An insurer notices HANA queries degraded from 2s to 15s over a month. The DBA needs root-cause analysis. Which tool should the DBA use first?
- Azure Cost Management to check for pricing-tier downgrades or configuration changes
- HANA Studio performance monitor with expensive-statement trace for query-level diagnostics
- Azure Network Watcher connection troubleshoot to test app-to-database latency
- SAP Solution Manager system monitoring to verify license compliance and support-pack status
Show answer & explanation
Correct: B — HANA Studio performance monitor with expensive-statement trace. It surfaces query-level bottlenecks, memory pressure, and I/O issues — the right first step for a database query slowdown. Pair it with Azure Monitor for SAP solutions for the Azure-side view.
Why not the others: Cost Management (A) tracks spend, not performance; Network Watcher (C) diagnoses connectivity, but query slowdowns usually originate in the database; Solution Manager (D) handles lifecycle and compliance, not real-time query diagnostics.
Source: Microsoft Learn — HANA VM operations & monitoring → Further reading: PowerKram — performance monitoring roles →Keep going: Learning & Career resources
AZ-120 sits at the intersection of two paths — SAP-on-Azure architecture, and broader cloud-infrastructure and solution-architecture careers. Both PowerKram hubs back this exam.
Related Microsoft Azure exams
Deep dive: AZ-120 format, scoring, study path, and what changed in April 2026
Exam format and scoring
AZ-120 delivers scenario-based questions (multiple choice, multiple response, drag-and-drop, and case studies) and is scored on a 1000-point scale with 700 to pass. Expect multi-constraint architecture cases: a scenario gives you a downtime window, an RPO, and an RTO, and you choose the SAP-on-Azure design that satisfies all three. Confirm the current question count and seat time on Microsoft’s exam page before scheduling. Read the certification study guides →
What changed in April 2026
Microsoft refreshed the AZ-120 skills outline on April 17, 2026 and consolidated the structure from five domains to four: the former standalone “Configure SAP on Azure Storage and Networking” domain is now covered as sub-topics inside “Design and implement an infrastructure,” and the “Maintain SAP workloads” domain rose to 20–25%. The outline also emphasizes RISE with SAP integration, the SAP Deployment Automation Framework, and Azure Center for SAP solutions, and strengthens the recommendation to hold AZ-104 first. Study material built on the five-domain outline is out of date. Read the architect path →
Realistic study path
AZ-120 is a senior Specialty exam — the fastest route is to bring Azure administration skills (ideally AZ-104) and deep SAP experience, then close the SAP-on-Azure specifics. Work the official Microsoft Learn SAP-on-Azure content, get hands-on with HANA sizing, Pacemaker clustering, and Azure Site Recovery in a lab, then drill scenario questions in PowerKram Learn mode by domain — starting with the two heaviest (Migrate and Infrastructure) — and finish with full timed Exam-mode runs. Read the SAP-on-Azure skills path →
Cost, scheduling, and renewal
The exam costs $165 USD (regional pricing varies) and is delivered through Pearson VUE at a test center or online with OnVUE. Microsoft sometimes runs voucher promotions tied to events like Microsoft Ignite. The certification is valid for one year and renews through a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn, available six months before expiry. Microsoft’s AZ-120 certification page →
Career outlook for AZ-120
AZ-120 is a niche but well-paid credential: SAP-on-Azure architects and migration specialists are in demand as enterprises move mission-critical SAP to the cloud, often under RISE with SAP. It is most valuable paired with the AZ-104 foundation and AZ-305 architecture credential, and with genuine SAP Basis/HANA experience. For salary ranges and role-specific paths, see the Career Hub. Career Hub — Solution Architect →
Frequently asked questions
What are the AZ-120 exam domains and weights?
Did the AZ-120 blueprint change recently?
Does AZ-120 have prerequisites?
What is the AZ-120 passing score?
How much does AZ-120 cost and how do I renew?
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