AZ-140 Renewal 2025 – What Microsoft Really Tested (and what they didn’t)

AZ-140 Renewal 2025 – What Microsoft Really Tested (and what they didn’t)

Hey You

Well… it happened again. I logged into Microsoft Learn… because… I do that every single day… don’t judge me… and suddenly that familiar message appeared:

AZ-140 – Your Certification Expires Soon

AZ-140: Azure Virtual Desktop Speciality Renewal

My (uhum) favourite exam… my baby… my “I deploy this in production while half asleep” certification.

And… yeah… I passed.

See them fireworks? They really know how to make a man feel special.

So… what did Microsoft REALLY test?

Let’s be honest. Microsoft exams aren’t about memorizing buttons anymore. They’re about

  • Have you ACTUALLY done this in real life?
  • Are you an admin or a tourist?
  • Did you read anything in the last 12 months?

So… let me break down the topics Microsoft secretly tried to expose you with… with some examples from the renewal dashboard.

1. Networking

Microsoft always starts with networking… ALWAYS! Because AVD without networking is just a Windows login screen floating in the void… … they all float… and soon you’ll float too… (shit… just saw Welcome to Derry and it kicks ass).

They want to know if you genuinely understand:

  • How RDP Shortpath behaves when DNS is moody
  • Why UDP is king and TCP is the sad fallback
  • Wheter you know Bastion exists (and that Public IPs are a crime)
  • How load-balancing logic affects user experience
  • The relationship between VNets, peering and session hosts

Example questions

  1. A user reports that Shortpath was working yesterday but (oh oh ) isn’t today. What’s the first think you check?
    1. Think UDP accessibility, routing, DNS resolution, firewall behavior
  2. An architect insists on deploying a Bastion host in every region. Should you?
    1. Hint: Cross-region peering. One Bastion (Ring) can rule them all. 

Microsoft doesn’t test your memory here… they test your trauma.

2. Storage

If FSLogix doesn’t work… nothing works. This section was ruthless… just like my previous blog Admin Renewal; Storate… always storage

Expect questions around:

Example Questions

  1. A profile container fails to mount on only half the session hosts. What do you investigate first?
    1. Permissions consistency, Kerberos delegation, DNS, SMB signing
  2. Your manager wants Cloud Cache with two Azure Files endpoints in different regions. Does that make sense?
    1. Think latency, writes, FSLogix performance impact.

Storage isn’t a topic in this exam… it’s a personality test

3. Session hosts

Microsoft loves testing your ability to build and maintain the actual machines behind AVD.

This includes:

  • Image preparation (golden image discipline is real)
  • Azure Compute Gallery Usage
  • Gen2 requirements
  • Scaling plan mechanics
  • VM registration failures (everyone’s favorite monday morning problem)

Example Questions

  1. A new session host doesn’t register with the host pool. What’s the first thing you check?
    1. AVD agent status, workspace registration, time sync, hybrid join
  2. Your organization wants to update the image monthly without breaking the world. What do you recommend?
    1. Shared Image Gallery + versioning + host pool draining

This section test whether you’ve ever built an image… sober…

4. Access & RBAC

Just like in my Azure Admin Renewal blog where Microsoft hits you with subtle logic traps, the AZ-140 renewal … did the exact same thing.

They want you to know if you understand:

  • Who can add session hosts
  • Who can manage drain mode
  • Which identity runs autoscale
  • What start VM on connect actually needs
  • The difference between “Contributor” and “You just gave someone full control of Azure”

Example Questions

  1. You need to give someone permissions to add session hosts but not remove them. Which role fits?
    1. Thin granular AVD roles… not Owner… not contributor
  2. Start VM on Connect isn’t working. What role is missing?
    1. Hint: Desktop Virtualization Power On Contributor (assigned on the ARM Prover SPN).

RBAC questions aren’t technical… they’re EMOTIONAL DAMAGE

FSLogix

If there’s one thing Microsoft LOVES testing… it’s FSLogix

Topics include:

  • VHDLocations
  • CCDLocations for Cloud Cache
  • ProfileType selection
  • Redirections.xml logic
  • Disk compaction behavior
  • Multi session quirks

Example Questions

  1. Users complain their profile loads slowly in the morning. What’s your first suspect?
    1. Storage latency, Azure Files throughput, Cloud Cache warm up
  2. You need redundant profile endpoints across two storage accounts. How do you set that up?
    1. CCDLocations… Always…

If you’ve never had FSLogix corrupt a profile at 08:55… are you even an AVD admin?

6. Monitoring

Monitoring is no longer optional. Microsoft wants you to know if you actually run AVD in production or just pray it works

Expect content about:

Example Questions

  1. You need to investigate why users can’t subscribe to the workspace feed. Where do you enable logs?
    1. On the Workspace resource (not the host pool)
  2. A scaling plan fails randomly and nobody knows why. What’s your move?
    1. Collect logs from the autoscale engine via Diagnositcs -> Log analytics

If monitoring isn’t configured your AVD is basically a haunted house.

Final Thoughts

This one wasn’t about trick questions or memorizing tabs… it was about real world logic…

  • If you’ve ever deployed AVD in production…
  • If you’ve ever rebuilt an image at midnight…
  • If you’ve ever chased a broken FSLogic container like it owed you money…

… if you’ve done all of the above… this exam will feel like Microsoft simply checking “Are you still the real deal?”

… yes… I still am… for another year that is.. 🙂

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

Engin

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