Can I still take AZ-800 or AZ-801?

No. Microsoft retired both exams on 30 September 2026 at 5:00 PM Central Standard Time, and they can no longer be booked. The certification they led to is now earned through AZ-802 alone. Microsoft's retirement policy says a certification cannot be earned through retired exams after their retirement date, so if you had passed only one of the pair, plan to sit AZ-802 against its own study guide.

Is AZ-802 harder than AZ-800 and AZ-801?

It is different rather than simply harder. You sit one exam instead of two, and the migration, failover clustering and Azure Site Recovery domains from AZ-801 no longer have their own sections. In exchange, AZ-802 goes deeper on AD DS, Hyper-V configuration, hybrid management with Azure Arc and hands-on troubleshooting. If you run Windows Server every day, much of it will feel familiar, but the objectives are detailed.

Is AZ-802 available in languages other than English?

As of October 2026, the exam page lists English only. Microsoft's study guide says that if an exam is not available in your preferred language, you can request an additional 30 minutes to complete it. Check the Schedule exam section of the exam page when you book, because Microsoft adds localised versions over time.

How do I keep the Windows Server Administrator Associate certification current?

Like other Microsoft associate certifications, it expires after one year. You renew it for free by passing an online renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn, which opens six months before your expiry date. The assessment is unproctored and open book, and you can retake it as often as needed until the certification expires.

AZ-802 Exam Guide: The New Windows Server Administrator Certification

Q: Do I need AZ-104 before AZ-802?

No. Microsoft lists no prerequisite certification for Windows Server Administrator Associate. The exam does expect practical experience with Windows Admin Center, Hyper-V, PowerShell, Azure Arc, Azure Monitor, Azure Update Manager and Defender for Cloud. Some Azure familiarity helps with the hybrid and Azure VM objectives, but you can learn those as part of AZ-802 preparation.

AZ-802: Administering Windows Server is the single exam behind Microsoft Certified: Windows Server Administrator Associate. It replaced the two-exam AZ-800 and AZ-801 route, which Microsoft retired on 30 September 2026. AZ-802 tests how you deploy, secure, monitor and troubleshoot Windows Server on-premises, in Azure and in hybrid estates, with Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) carrying the most weight.

At a glance

Exam: AZ-802, Administering Windows Server
Certification: Microsoft Certified: Windows Server Administrator Associate (intermediate level)
Replaces: AZ-800 and AZ-801, both retired on 30 September 2026
Passing score: 700 or greater
Language: English only as of October 2026. If English is not your preferred language, you can request an extra 30 minutes
Price: set by the country where the exam is proctored, so check the UK figure on the exam page when you book
Official Microsoft course: AZ-802T00, Administer Windows Server, listed at five days
Renewal: every year, through a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn

What changed: two exams became one

Until September 2026, the Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate meant passing AZ-800 (core infrastructure) and AZ-801 (advanced services). Microsoft retired both exams, retired the AZ-800T00 and AZ-801T00 courses on the same day, and named AZ-802T00 as the replacement course. The credential was renamed too: "Hybrid" has gone from the title.

The new exam is not the two old ones stapled together. AZ-801 gave between 45 and 60 percent of its weight to three areas: failover clustering and high availability, disaster recovery with Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery, and migrating servers and workloads. None of those has its own domain in AZ-802. Some of that ground survives inside other domains, such as Hyper-V Replica, high availability for Hyper-V VMs and DHCP, Storage Spaces Direct and Storage Replica. The emphasis has moved from moving Windows Server to running and fixing it well.

	AZ-800 plus AZ-801	AZ-802
Exams to pass	Two	One
Credential name	Hybrid Administrator Associate	Administrator Associate
Migration domain	Yes, in AZ-801	No
Disaster recovery domain	Yes, in AZ-801	No

Skills measured in AZ-802

The AZ-802 study guide lists seven domains.

Domain	Weight
Deploy and manage AD DS	20 to 25%
Hybrid management of Windows Server	10 to 15%
Manage virtual machines	10 to 15%
On-premises and hybrid networking	10 to 15%
Storage and file services	15 to 20%
Secure Windows Server infrastructure	10 to 15%
Monitor and troubleshoot	15 to 20%

Where candidates lose marks

AD DS runs through the whole exam. It is a quarter of the weight on its own, and more once you count the security and troubleshooting objectives. Expect domain controllers on-premises and in Azure, read-only domain controllers, FSMO roles, trusts, sites, replication, service accounts and Group Policy. Troubleshooting adds AD Recycle Bin restores, Directory Services Restore Mode, SYSVOL recovery, Kerberos failures and broken secure channels.

Hybrid is narrower but deeper. Windows Admin Center on-premises and in the Azure portal, PowerShell remoting with the double-hop problem and Just Enough Administration, Azure Arc enabled servers, VM extensions on non-Azure machines, Azure Update Manager and Azure Automation runbooks.

Hyper-V detail catches people out. The VM domain lists 14 Hyper-V objectives, including nested virtualisation, GPU partitioning, device assignment, checkpoints, NIC teaming and Hyper-V Replica. Azure VM sizing, availability zones, just-in-time access and Azure Bastion sit alongside them.

Security is hands-on. Credential Guard, Application Control for Windows, OSConfig security baselines, Windows LAPS, Defender for Servers, Microsoft Entra Password Protection for AD DS, protected users and domain controller hardening all appear by name.

Who should take AZ-802, and who should take AZ-104

AZ-802 suits administrators who look after Active Directory, file servers, Hyper-V hosts and Windows Server VMs, wherever they run. It is also a sensible target for anyone working on upgrades from Windows Server 2016, which reaches the end of its updates on 12 January 2027 according to Microsoft's Ending Support in 2027 list. Extended Security Updates are available for the Standard and Datacenter editions, but an upgrade project still needs people who know the current platform properly.

If your day job is mostly Azure subscriptions, virtual networks, storage accounts and role assignments, AZ-104 is the better fit.

You mostly manage	Start with
AD DS, Group Policy, Hyper-V, file servers	AZ-802
Azure subscriptions, VNets, storage, RBAC	AZ-104
Both, in a hybrid estate	AZ-802, then AZ-104

Microsoft's audience profile expects experience with Windows Admin Center, Hyper-V, PowerShell, Azure Arc, Azure Monitor, Azure Update Manager and Defender for Cloud, plus familiarity with AD DS. There is no prerequisite certification.

Using older AZ-800 and AZ-801 material

Microsoft's course retirement page says that when an instructor-led course retires, the related learning paths and modules often stay on Microsoft Learn for reference. Old AZ-800 and AZ-801 notes are therefore still useful, but only if you map them to the new objectives. Work through the AZ-802 study guide line by line and tick off each objective against a module, a lab or your own experience. Anything left unticked is your study list.

Treat migration-heavy chapters, such as Storage Migration Service, Azure Migrate and forest restructuring, as optional for the exam. Keep them if your job needs them, because a Windows Server 2016 upgrade project will. Check older screenshots against current tooling too. Patching, for example, is now examined through Azure Update Manager, so notes built around the retired Update Management feature in Azure Automation will mislead you.

If you already hold Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate

What you earned stays on your Microsoft Learn transcript. Associate certifications expire after a year and are renewed through a free, unproctored, open-book assessment that opens six months before the expiry date. Rather than assume either way, open the Certifications section of your Learn profile and look for your expiry date and a Renew button. If no renewal is offered, AZ-802 is the route to the current credential.

A six-week study plan for working admins

This plan assumes six to eight hours a week and a lab you can break. Microsoft offers a free 180-day evaluation of Windows Server 2025 through its Evaluation Center, and an Azure subscription covers the hybrid objectives.

Week	Focus	Lab goal
1	AD DS core	Two DCs, an RODC, sites, a trust
2	Group Policy and security	LAPS, Credential Guard, protected users
3	Hyper-V and Azure VMs	Nested host, checkpoints, Replica, Bastion
4	Networking and storage	DNS policies, DHCP failover, Storage Spaces
5	Hybrid management	Arc enabled server, Update Manager, runbook
6	Troubleshooting and review	Break and fix AD, practice questions

Commands worth knowing cold

The troubleshooting domain rewards speed with the basics. Run these in your lab until they are habit:

Get-ADForest | Select-Object SchemaMaster, DomainNamingMaster     # forest-wide FSMO roles
Get-ADDomain | Select-Object PDCEmulator, RIDMaster, InfrastructureMaster   # domain FSMO roles
repadmin /replsummary            # replication health across the forest
Test-ComputerSecureChannel -Verbose   # is this machine's secure channel healthy?
azcmagent show                   # Azure Arc agent status on a hybrid server

A common mistake is studying only in the graphical tools. The exam names PowerShell, PowerShell Direct and SSH Direct, and most admins meet remoting problems such as the double hop only when something is already broken. Practise them on purpose.

Booking AZ-802 from the UK

Register with a personal Microsoft account. Microsoft warns that exam records tied to a work or school account are lost if you leave that organisation.
Try the exam sandbox first so the question formats hold no surprises.
Check the price in pounds at checkout, because Microsoft sets it by country.
The study guide points to a practice assessment on Microsoft's AI Skills Navigator, which needs a sign-in. In October 2026 the certification page still said no practice assessment was available, so check both before relying on one.
Book a date that leaves a week of slack for revision. Booking the exam for the morning after your last study session leaves no room to fix the weak areas your practice questions reveal.

How CertTulen Academy can help

CertTulen Academy, a Microsoft Training Services Partner, runs live, MCT-led online classes for AZ-802 with hands-on labs. Professional certification courses include an exam voucher, mock practice tests and lab access, so check the course page for details. If your role leans towards Azure, pair it with AZ-104. For IT teams planning Windows Server upgrades, we also run private corporate cohorts. Contact us for a batch that suits your UK time zone.